• Author: North American Review
• Editor: B-7413
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume 5
• Page Number:
• Date: 7 5 1916
• Tags:
• poetry

IF THIS BE ALL If this be all, and when we die, we die, Then life is but a wanton, monstrous lie; And of the hapless creatures that draw breath, We, who seem flower and crown, far below rank The least of living things that does know, The dread of loss, the certainty of death. If pain and sorrow are without a scheme, Dealt out by chance, then like an evil dream Of some dark fiend, this smiling gracious earth; If we that hunger, neves shall be filled, The sooner that our empty hearts are stilled, The better for them and their aching dearth. Yet close, I feel, there wraps us all around, Some mighty force, some mystery profound, And though my debts and ignorance I trust, The power that bound with laws the moon and tide. And hug the stars in heavenly spaces wide, Must by their witness, be both wise and just. —North American Review.