  Thanking God for life and light, Strength and joyous breath, Should we not, with reverent lips, Thank Him, too, for death? When would man’s injustice cease, Did not stern Death bring Those who cheated and oppressed To their reckoning? Would not life’s long sordidness On our spirits pall, If our years should last forever, And the earth were all? On us, withered with life’s heat, Falls death’s cooling dew, And our parched souls’ dusty leaves Their lost green renew. Ah, though deep the grave-dust hide Love and courage high, Life a paltrier thing would be If we could not die! |
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