BUT whether in the uncoloured light of truth, This inward strong assurance be, indeed, More than the self-willed arbitrary creed, Manhood's inheritor to the dream of youth; Whether to shut out fact because forsooth To live were insupportable unfreed, Be not or be the service of untruth: Whether this vital confidence be more Than his, who upon death's immediate brink, Knowing, perforce determines to ignore; Or than the bird's, that when the hunter's near, Burying her eyesight, can forget her fear; Who about this shall tell us what to think? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A BETTER RESURRECTION by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE TWO RABBIS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE SONG OF THE OLD MOTHER by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS A MASQUE OF DEAD QUEENS by STANLEY E. BABB HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 15 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH THE RUINED PALACE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: MISANTHROPOS by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |