Question of Degree
There are some things that when you do not have them you wish you did. And there are some things that when you do not have them you go out and get them.
Kay Sage
SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)
There are some things that when you do not have them you wish you did. And there are some things that when you do not have them you go out and get them.
The poem splits the things we lack into two kinds, and it does so in just a few plain lines. Some absences leave us only wishing. Others push us to act, and we go out and fetch what's missing. The title, "Question of Degree," hints that the difference comes down to how much we want something, or how much it matters to us.
The speaker never says which things belong in which group, and that gap is what makes the poem interesting. Is wishing a sign of weak desire, or of something truly out of reach? Is getting just a matter of stronger will? The mood is calm and almost dry, with a quiet, wry edge. It doesn't scold or comfort. It simply states the pattern, then leaves the reader to look at their own life and sort what they've merely wished for from what they've actually gone after.