This Life is full of numbness and of balk, Of haltingness and baffled short-coming, Of promise unfulfilled, of everything That is puffed vanity and empty talk: Its very bud hangs cankered on the stalk, Its very song-bird trails a broken wing, Its very Spring is not indeed like Spring, But sighs like Autumn round an aimless walk. This Life we live is dead for all its breath; Death's self it is, set off on pilgrimage, Travelling with tottering steps the first short stage: The second stage is one mere desert dust Where Death sits veiled amid creation's rust: -- Unveil thy face, O Death who art not Death. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVE TO THE CHURCH by TIMOTHY DWIGHT PRISONED IN WINDSOR, HE RECOUNTETH HIS PLEASURE THERE PASSED by HENRY HOWARD SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: BENJAMIN PANTIER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE FROGS: HYMN OF THE INITIATES by ARISTOPHANES |