Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BENIGNANT DEATH, by EFFIE WALLER SMITH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BENIGNANT DEATH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Thanking god for life and light
Last Line: If we could not die!
Subject(s): Death; Life; Religion; Dead, The; Theology


Thanking God for life and light,
Strength and joyous breath,
Should we not, with reverent lips,
Thank Him, too, for death?

When would man's injustice cease,
Did not stern Death bring
Those who cheated and oppressed
To their reckoning?

Would not life's long sordidness
On our spirits pall,
If our years should last forever,
And the earth were all?

On us, withered with life's heat,
Falls death's cooling dew,
And our parched souls' dusty leaves
Their lost green renew.

Ah, though deep the grave-dust hide
Love and courage high,
Life a paltrier thing would be
If we could not die!






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