'CAN it be good to die?' you question, friend; <br />'Can it be good to die, and move along <br />Still circling round and round, unknowing end, <br />Still circling round and round amid the throng <br />Of golden orbs attended by their moons– <br />To catch the intonation of their song <br />As on they flash, and scatter nights, and noons, <br />To worlds like ours, where things like us belong?' <br /> <br />To me 'tis idle saying, 'He is dead.' <br />Or, 'Now he sleepeth and shall wake no more; <br />The little flickering, fluttering life is fled, <br />Forever fled, and all that was is o'er.' <br />I have a faith–that life and death are one, <br />That each depends upon the self-same thread, <br />And that the seen and unseen rivers run <br />To one calm sea, from one clear fountain head. <br /> <br />I have a faith–that man's most potent mind <br />May cross the willow-shaded stream nor sink; <br />I have a faith–when he has left behind <br />His earthly vesture on the river's brink, <br />When all his little fears are torn away, <br />His soul may beat a pathway through the tide, <br />And, disencumbered of its coward-clay, <br />Emerge immortal on the sunnier side. <br /> <br />So, say:–It must be good to die, my friend! <br />It must be good and more than good, I deem; <br />'Tis all the replication I may send– <br />For deeper swimming seek a deeper stream. <br /> <br />It must be good or reason is a cheat, <br />It must be good or life is all a lie, <br />It must be good and more then living sweet, <br />It must be good–or man would never die.<br /><br />George Frederick Cameron<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-answer-19/
