Athlete, virtuoso, <br />Training for happiness, <br />Bend arm and knee, and seek <br />The body's sharp distress, <br />For pain is pleasure's cost, <br />Denial is route <br />To speech before the millions <br />Or personal with the flute. <br /> <br />The ape and great Achilles, <br />Heavy with their fate, <br />Batter doors down, strike <br />Small children at the gate, <br />Driven by love to this, <br />As knock-kneed Hegel said, <br />To seek with a sword their peace, <br />That the child may be taken away <br />From the hurly-burly and fed. <br /> <br />Ladies and Gentlemen, said <br />The curious Socrates, <br />I have asked, What is this life <br />But a childermass, <br />As Abraham recognized, <br />A working with the knife <br />At animal, maid and stone <br />Until we have cut down <br />All but the soul alone: <br />Through hate we guard our love, <br />And its distinction's known.<br /><br />Delmore Schwartz<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/for-the-one-who-would-not-take-his-life-in-his-h/
