LIFE IS REAL, life is earnest, And the shell is not its pen -- "Egg thou art, and egg remainest" Was not spoken of the hen. Art is long and Time is fleeting, Be our bills then sharpened well, And not like muffled drums be beating On the inside of the shell. In the world's broad field of battle, In the great barnyard of life, Be not like those lazy cattle! Be a rooster in the strife! Lives of roosters all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And when roasted, leave behind us, Hen tracks on the sands of time. Hen tracks that perhaps another Chicken drooping in the rain, Some forlorn and henpecked brother, When he sees, shall crow again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GEORGE MOORE by MARIANNE MOORE A VALENTINE TO SHERWOOD ANDERSON by GERTRUDE STEIN GOD'S YOUTH by LOUIS UNTERMEYER LINES TO WILLIAM LINLEY WHILE HE SANG A SONG TO PURCELL'S MUSIC by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE EPITHALAMIUM by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN THE RAINY SUMMER by ALICE MEYNELL THE FIRST PROCLAMATION OF MILES STANDISH [NOVEMBER 23, 1620] by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON |