My friends, why should we live? Life is an idle war a toilsome peace; To-day I would not give One small consent for its securest ease. Shall we out-wear the year In our pavilions on its dusty plain And yet no signal hear To strike our tents and take the road again? Or else drag up the slope The heavy ordnance of nature's train? Useless but in the hope, Some far remote and heavenward hill to gain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHANSON INNOCENTE: 1, FR. TULIPS by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS THE SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE: 1 by GEORGE MEREDITH HERE LIES A LADY by JOHN CROWE RANSOM DARWINISM by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON ON KEATS, WHO DESIRED THAT ON HIS TOMB SHOULD BE INSCRIBED: by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY EVOLUTION by JOHN BANISTER TABB |