OR endless sleep 't will be, — and that is rest, <br />Freedom forever from life's weary cares — <br />Or else a life beyond the climbing stairs <br />And dizzy pinnacles of thought expressed <br />In symbols such as in our mortal breast <br />Are framed by time and space; — life that upbears <br />The soul by a law untried amid these snares <br />Of sense that make it a too willing guest. <br />So sleep or waking were a boon divine. <br />Yet why this inextinguishable thirst, <br />This hope, this faith that to existence cling? <br />Nay e'en the poor dark chrysalis some fine <br />Ethereal creature prisons, till it burst <br />Into the unknown, air on golden wing.<br /><br />Christopher Pearse Cranch<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-xxx-life-and-death-2/
