Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CARELESS WORD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A word is ringing through my brain
Last Line: Dwell weeping on a careless word.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Pearce; Stirling-maxwell, Lady; Norton, The Honourable Mrs. Caroline
Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary


A WORD is ringing through my brain:
It was not meant to give me pain;
It had no tone to bid it stay,
When other things had pass'd away;
It had no meaning more than all
Which in an idle hour fall:
It was when first the sound I heard
A lightly-utter'd, careless word.

That word -- oh! it doth haunt me now,
In scenes of joy, in scenes of wo;
By night, by day, in sun or shade,
With the half smile that gently play'd
Reproachfully, and gave the sound
Eternal power through life to wound.
There is no voice I ever heard
So deeply fix'd as that one word.

When in the laughing crowd some tone,
Like those whose joyous sound is gone,
Strikes on my ear, I shrink -- for then
The careless word comes back again.
When all alone I sit and gaze
Upon the cheerful home-fire blaze,
Lo! freshly as when first 't was heard,
Returns that lightly-utter'd word.

When dreams bring back the days of old,
With all that wishes could not hold;
And from my feverish couch I start
To press a shadow to my heart --
Amid its beating echoes, clear
That little word I seem to hear:
In vain I say, while it is heard,
Why weep? -- 't was but a foolish word.

It comes -- and with it come the tears,
The hopes, the joys of former years;
Forgotten smiles, forgotten looks,
Thick as dead leaves on autumn brooks,
And all as joyless, though they were
The brightest things life's spring could share.
Oh! would to God I ne'er had heard
That lightly-utter'd, careless word!

It was the first, the only one
Of these which lips forever gone
Breathed in their love -- which had for me
Rebuke of harshness at my glee:
And if those lips were heard to say,
"Beloved, let it pass away,"
Ah! then, perchance -- but I have heard
The last dear tone -- the careless word!

Oh! ye who, meeting, sigh to part,
Whose words are treasures to some heart,
Deal gently, ere the dark days come,
When earth hath but for one a home;
Lest, musing o'er the past, like me,
They feel their hearts wrung bitterly,
And, heeding not what else they heard,
Dwell weeping on a careless word.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net