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[Poems by Wilde in] Richard Henry Wilde

His Life and Selected Poems

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REPLY TO SOME MELANCHOLY VERSES BEGINNING “WHY DO WE LIVE?”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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REPLY TO SOME MELANCHOLY VERSES BEGINNING “WHY DO WE LIVE?”

Why do we live?
The answer lies
In every flower that springs:
In every star that decks the skies,
In every bird that sings:
In all that makes the Earth so fair,
What would we have which is not there?
Why do we live?
Is there no ear
Such cruel words would wound?
Is there no eye whose ready tear
Would answer to their sound?
We live because our death would throw
On others all our weight of woe!