WHY BE AFRAID OF DEATH
Why be afraid of death, as though your life were breath?
Death but anoints your eyes with clay. O glad surprise.
Why should ye be forlorn? Death only husks the corn.
Why should you fear to meet
the thresher of the wheat?
Is sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead
Till you awake and rise, here, or beyond the skies.
Why should it be a wrench to leave your wooden bench!
Why not, with happy shout, run home when school is out!
The dear ones left behind? Oh, foolish one and blind!/A day and you will meet — a night and you will greet.
This is death of death, to breathe away a breath
And know the end of strife, and taste the deathless life,
And joy without a fear, and smile without a tear;
And work, nor care to rest, and find…
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