THE young girl questions: "Whether were it better To lie for ever, a warm slug-a-bed Or to rise up and bide by Fate and Chance, The rawness of the morning, The gibing and the scorning Of the stern Teacher of my ignorance?" "I know not," Wisdom said. The young girl questions: "Friend, shall I die calmer, If I've lain for ever, sheets above the head, Warm in a dream, or rise to take the worst Of peril in the highways Of straying in the by-ways. Of hunger for the truth, of drought and thirst?" "We do not know," he said, "Nor may till we be dead." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE BEING AS MEMORY by HAYDEN CARRUTH DRAW THE SWORD, O REPUBLIC by EDGAR LEE MASTERS MINIVER CHEEVY by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 30 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE QUESTION by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY THE NIGHTINGALE by PHILIP SIDNEY LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND: 8. THE EVICTION by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM |