What does the phrase Tell you if the lovers are losers mean in the cool tomb poem?

Answer 1

I would like to think that it means that the lovers are the people who have true love of life and one another, as opposed to their wordly goals, posessions, and money.

They lose nothing when they die, whether they are poor or rich, they lost nothing.

I think Sandburg is trying to point out that no one has any more than the other one when they are dead.

When we return to dust, he is saying, we will no longer have even a lingering thought of any negative aspects of our life, such as bitterness or hate or money or wordly gain.

So maybe to live and love is to win while to live and toil in life to gain riches, get revenge, or harbor hatred is to lose and is a waste of time.

The lovers may be percieved as losers in life by people of worldly thought because they are of less worldly things and money and posessions.

He refers to the crowds of common people having fun and cheering a hero, maybe at a parade. So he asks take any of them and seeing how happy they are and full of love they are, would you say they lose?