The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Gay, Ross. "Sorrow Is Not My Name." Bringing the Shovel Down (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011).

Note that all parenthetical citations refer to the line number from which the quotation is taken.

Ross Gay is best known for his insistence on invoking joy. His multifaceted career ranges from writing and teaching to gardening and cultivating fruit trees at an orchard. Rather than position joy in opposition to mortality and suffering, Gay reconciles these experiences in his lyric poetry. "Sorrow Is Not My Name" is a free verse poem composed of a single stanza that dialogues with Gwendolyn Brooks's "To the Young Who Want to Die." The speaker in "Sorrow is Not My Name" makes peace with his own inevitable death and prompts those who struggle with depression and suicidal ideation to look out into the world. Noticing acts as a balm for the wounds of sorrow. By rejoicing in the delights around him, the speaker himself becomes what he beholds: spring.