The speaker addresses someone deep in sorrow, insisting that despair is never justified while the natural world continues its cycles of beauty. Evening dew, morning sunshine, burning stars — these steady rhythms hint that sadness doesn’t have to be final. Even tears are woven into a larger pattern: winds sigh in sympathy, winter sheds grief like snow where autumn leaves lie. The poem doesn’t dismiss pain; it allows that tears may flow like a river. But it also reminds the mourner that the people they love are still held close in memory, “around your heart forever.” The speaker’s own emotion is a gentle, determined tenderness — a refusal to let the listener sink. The mood is consoling and strangely lulling, like a night-time reassurance. Just as fallen leaves revive in spring, the poem insists, so the heart can carry on. The final command, “journey on, if not elate, / Still, never broken-hearted,” is a quiet push toward resilience, not forced cheer. The whole poem feels like a hand held in the dark.
Sympathy — Summary
There should be no despair for you While nightly stars are burning, While evening pours its silent dew And sunshine gilds the morning. There should be no despair - though tears May flow down like a river: Are not the best beloved of years Around your heart forever?
They weep - you weep - it must be so; Winds sigh as you are sighing, And Winter sheds his grief in snow Where Autumn's leaves are lying: Yet these revive, and from their fate Your fate cannot be parted, Then journey on, if not elate, Still, never broken-hearted!