DUTY -- that's to say, complying With whate'er's expected here; On your unknown cousin's dying. Straight be ready with the tear; Upon etiquette relying, Unto usage nought denying, Lend your waist to be embraced, Blush not even, never fear; Claims of kith and kin connection, Claims of manners honour still, Ready money of affection Pay, whoever drew the bill. With the form conforming duly, Senseless what it meaneth truly, Go to church -- the world require you, To balls -- the world require you too, And marry -- papa and mamma desire you, And your sisters and schoolfellows do. Duty -- 'tis to take on trust What things are good, and right, and just; And whether indeed they be or be not, Try not, test not, feel not, see not: 'Tis walk and dance, sit down and rise By leading, opening ne'er your eyes; Stunt sturdy limbs that Nature gave, And be drawn in a Bath chair along to the grave. 'Tis the stern and prompt suppressing As an obvious deadly sin, All the questing and the guessing Of the soul's own soul within: 'Tis the coward acquiescence In a destiny's behest, To a shade by terror made, Sacrificing, aye, the essence Of all that's truest, noblest, best: 'Tis the blind non-recognition Or of goodness, truth, or beauty, Save by precept and submission; Moral blank, and moral void, Life at very birth destroyed. Atrophy, exinanition! Duty! Yea, by duty's prime condition Pure nonentity of duty! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE STRAPLESS by KAREN SWENSON PREJUDICE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON DREAMS OLD AND NASCENT: NASCENT by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE OEDIPUS AT COLONUS: OLD AGE by SOPHOCLES THE DISCOVERY; SONNET by JOHN COLLINGS SQUIRE SEVEN SAD SONNETS: 7. THEY MEET AGAIN by MARY REYNOLDS ALDIS |