Tears and Kisses — Summary

In just four short lines, Georgia Douglas Johnson sets two kinds of feeling side by side. Some tears bring relief, as gentle and renewing as morning dew. Others run too deep to be measured by anything the body can show. The same is true of affection: certain kisses are light and quickly gone, like thistledown blown by the wind. But some kisses stay with us past death, rooted in memory and love for someone no longer here. The speaker sounds tender and reflective, not angry or hopeless. The mood is intimate and bittersweet, moving from gentle sadness to a quiet sense of permanence. The poem feels like someone sitting with loss and love at once, recognizing that the deepest emotions often have no outward size or shape, yet they remain.