University of Virginia Library


30

WHICH SHALL IT BE?

Which shall it be? A life of ease
With self, and only self to please,
And fill'd with joys of sense and sight,
With all that ministers delight,
Or life for nobler things than these?
To drink sweet wine upon the lees,
Idly to sail on summer seas,
Or climb from upward height to height,
Which shall it be?
The passing joys of earth to seize,
Or search, till found, for wisdom's keys,
To do the wrong, and spurn the right,
And keep a soul pure, stainless, white,
Where holy thoughts hive thick as bees,
Which shall it be?