University of Virginia Library

WHY?

I said “I will serve my God and man.”
So I took my life and wrencht it away
From things it clung to, as life so can,
The beautiful things of dawn and day
And scent and music; and in the gray
Dim twilight kept it. But lo, it began
To cry for its beautiful reds and blues,
And moan'd and sobb'd as the moments ran
Into hours and days, and I would not choose
Aught else but the sad and sober hues.
And my life was fain for the joyous shout
Of youth and spring, and I husht it then
And said, “Thou must serve thy God and men!
So life, my life, be content without
The things that thy fellows may not have;
Sell all and give to the poor, and crave
No more, for the night-time cometh, and then
No man can work: toil on and slave;
Thrice pitiless to thine own self be;
God's pity is enough for thee.”
But I could not still its murmuring,
And at last, at last, I brought it back
To the dear old world, and bade it cling
To the beauty and brightness; but, dull and slack,
Its tendrils dropped away from each thing
They were wont to clasp; and I moan'd “Alack!
What matter to me if the sky be black
And the song-birds droop with broken wing?
Oh woe is me that I cannot care!
I sit dull-eyed, with faded hair,
And I cannot weep and I cannot sing,
And I care not to serve God or men,
I care not either to work or wait.—
The shadows are falling, it groweth late,
The night-time cometh, and soon: what then?”