Why be afraid of death, as though your life were breath? Death but anoints your eyes with clay. O glad surprise! Why should you be forlorn? Death only husks the corn. Why should you fear to meet the thresher of the wheat? Is sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead Till you awake and rise, here, or beyond the skies. Why should it be a wrench to leave your wooden bench? Why not, with happy shout, run home when school is out? The dear ones left behind? Oh, foolish one and blind! A day and you will meet—a night and you will greet. This is the death of death, to breathe away a breath And know the end of strife, and taste the deathless life, And joy without a fear, and smile without a tear; And work, nor care to rest, and find the last the best. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DAY AND THE WORK by EDWIN MARKHAM ODE ON THE POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND by WILLIAM COLLINS (1721-1759) THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN by RUDYARD KIPLING AFTER THE WINTER by CLAUDE MCKAY TO CHILDREN: 3. THE GOLDEN DAY by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |