Classic Poem

The young girl questions: " Whether were it better "
To lie for ever, a warm slug-a-bed,
Or to rise up and bide by Fate and Chance,
— The rawness of the morning,
— The gibing and the scorning
Of the stern Teacher of my ignorance? "
— " I know not, " Wisdom said.

The young girl questions: " Friend, shall I die calmer,
If I've lain for ever, sheets above the head,
Warm in a dream, or rise to take the worst
— Of peril in the highways
— Of straying in the by-ways,
Of hunger for the truth, of drought and thirst? "
— " We do not know, " he said,
— " Nor may till we be dead. "