IT was not Zeus, I think, made this decree, Nor Justice, dweller with the Gods below, Who made appointment of such laws to men. Nor did I think your edicts were so strong That any mortal man should override The Gods' unwritten and undying laws. Their life is not to-day and yesterday But always, and none knoweth whence they came. I would not pay the price before the Gods Of breaking these for fear of any man. I knew that I should die; and why not so? Though you had not ordained it. If I die Before my time, I count it something gained. For whoso lives with many miseries As I live, is not death a gain to him? Therefore I count the coming of this doom No grief at all. Rather, -- if I had left Unburied mine own mother's son in death, -- That would have grieved me. This can bring no grief. If what I do seems foolishness to you, A foolish judgement reckons me a fool. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 10. THE DYING FALL by THOMAS CAMPION BALL'S BLUFF; A REVERIE by HERMAN MELVILLE THE PLUMPUPPETS by CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON MORLEY IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 82 by ALFRED TENNYSON ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS: PART 2: 25. THE VIRGIN by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE BROOK: SUMMER by LAURA ABELL TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE REV. GILBERT WAKEFIELD by LUCY AIKEN |