There are only two roads, then oh, wisely spurn
The glittering, tempting, snare;
Should you strive from its easy course to return
With torn, bleeding feet, you would climb but to learn
That the hardest steeps are there.
The glittering, tempting, snare;
Should you strive from its easy course to return
With torn, bleeding feet, you would climb but to learn
That the hardest steeps are there.
There are only two roads, 'tis reason's call,
The answer is yours alone;
Down! faster down! to a fathomless fall,
Or up 'till the mountains of triumph tall
Are steps to a victor's throne.
The answer is yours alone;
Down! faster down! to a fathomless fall,
Or up 'till the mountains of triumph tall
Are steps to a victor's throne.
THE REVEALING.
How do we know how we love each other,
We who are never for long apart;
Daughter and son or sister and brother,
Husband and wife or father and mother,
Under the same roof, heart to heart?
We who are never for long apart;
Daughter and son or sister and brother,
Husband and wife or father and mother,
Under the same roof, heart to heart?
Sometimes there cometh a sad revealing,
O, his terrible, terrible name is—Death;
Who enters the household softly stealing,
And puts out the tapers of thought and feeling
With one chill blast of his icy breath!
O, his terrible, terrible name is—Death;
Who enters the household softly stealing,
And puts out the tapers of thought and feeling
With one chill blast of his icy breath!
Comes he to test our loves and prove them,
Loves half forgotten in life's pursuit?
O but we learn how much we love them
When the cold grave clods lie dark above them,
With their bright eyes closed and the sweet lips mute!
Loves half forgotten in life's pursuit?
O but we learn how much we love them
When the cold grave clods lie dark above them,
With their bright eyes closed and the sweet lips mute!
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