WHAT is hope? A smiling rainbow Children follow through the wet: 'Tis not here, still yonder, yonder; Never urchin found it yet! What is life? A thawing ice-board, On a sea with sunny shore— Gay we sail: it melts beneath us; We are sunk, and seen no more What is man? A foolish baby, Vainly strives, and fights, and frets; Demanding all, deserving nothing— One small grave is what he gets. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THRENODY by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW AT THE SHRINE by RICHARD KENDALL MUNKITTRICK THE OUTGOING OF SABBATH by ALTER ABELSON THE LAST MAN: RECEPTION OF EVIL TIDINGS by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES THE AGNOSTIC by MATHILDE BLIND INLAND SEA by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN GHELUVELT; EPITAPH ON THE WORCESTERS by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES |