And When My Sorrow was Born
By: Kahlil Gibran

And when my Joy was born, I held it in my arms and stood on the
house-top shouting, “Come ye, my neighbours, come and see, for Joy
this day is born unto me.  Come and behold this gladsome thing that
laugheth in the sun.”

But none of my neighbours came to look upon my Joy, and great was
my astonishment.

And every day for seven moons I proclaimed my Joy from the
house-top—and yet no one heeded me.  And my Joy and I were alone,
unsought and unvisited.

Then my Joy grew pale and weary because no other heart but mine
held its loveliness and no other lips kissed its lips.

Then my Joy died of isolation.

And now I only remember my dead Joy in remembering my dead Sorrow.
But memory is an autumn leaf that murmurs a while in the wind and
then is heard no more.

Reflection:

When choosing a WW Fenn poem I prefer a poem that has profound meaning. And When My Sorrow was Born by Kahlil Gibran, is a poem that taught me, a poem doesn’t need to be lengthy to have deep meaning. I had to re-read this poem many times to finally understand the profound message Kahlil Gibran was trying to give. This poem brings me back to March 2020. My friends and I were thrilled for the seventh grade Washington D.C. until the Coronavirus hit the world. From my isolation, during quarantine, my Joy during seventh grade has gone into sorrow. I sense I have made a great decision on my poem. The powerful message in this poem can relate to my life, which makes it a poem I’m excited to start memorizing. 

Alright it feels great to be done! This experience of memorizing And When My Sorrow was Born by Kahlil Gibran, wasn’t as bad as I thought. I didn’t memorize last minute; however, I spent a little bit of time each night. This strategy made my performance less stressful and more relaxing. Through the years I have done WW Fenn, I will take forward many strategy’s to memorization in the future. 

Literary Analysis:

Joy in this world can’t last forever. In the poem And When My Sorrow was Born by Kahlil Gibran, we are shown that having Joy can turn into sorrow by Isolation. Kahlil Gibran uses strong and descriptive language to paint a picture in our mind that Joy doesn’t last. Kahlil uses examples of the protagonist going to the house-top and expressing his joy, “And when my Joy was born, I held it in my arms and stood on the house-top shouting.” However Kahlil makes a plot twist which changes the theme of the poem:

“I proclaimed my Joy from the house-top—and yet no one heeded me.  And my Joy and I were alone, unsought and unvisited. Then my Joy grew pale and weary… Then my Joy died of isolation.” 

With a couple of sentences Kahlil unlocked a profound message to the poem. No matter how many times the protagonist went to express his Joy from the house-top,“none of my neighbours came to look upon my Joy.” Slowly as the “seven moons” were passing on his Joy has been fading and fading away. 

Kahlil tries to warn us of the danger of isolation, which can erode Joy.