Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DEATH, by MALTBIE DAVENPORT BABCOCK



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEATH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Why be afraid of death, as though your life were breath?
Last Line: And work, nor care to rest, and find the last the best.
Variant Title(s): Emancipation
Subject(s): Death; Heaven; Religion; Dead, The; Paradise; Theology


Why be afraid of death, as though your life were breath?
Death but anoints your eyes with clay. O glad surprise!

Why should you be forlorn? Death only husks the corn.
Why should you fear to meet the thresher of the wheat?

Is sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead
Till you awake and rise, here, or beyond the skies.

Why should it be a wrench to leave your wooden bench?
Why not, with happy shout, run home when school is out?

The dear ones left behind? Oh, foolish one and blind!
A day and you will meet—a night and you will greet.

This is the death of death, to breathe away a breath
And know the end of strife, and taste the deathless life,
And joy without a fear, and smile without a tear;
And work, nor care to rest, and find the last the best.





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