Long Life Not To Be Desired

written by


« Reload image


  WHO, loving life, hath sought
  To outrun the appointed span,
  Shall be arraigned before my thought
  For an infatuate man.
  Since the added years entail
  Much that is bitter; -- joy
  Flies out of ken, desire doth fail,
  The wished-for moments cloy.
  But when the troublous life,
  Be it less or more, is past,
  With power to end the strife
  Comes rescuing Death at last.
  Lo! the dark bridegroom waits! No festal choir
  Shall grace his destined hour, no dance, no lyre!

  Far best were ne'er to be;
  But, once he hath seen the day,
  Next best by far for each to flee
  As swiftly as each may,
  Yonder from whence he came;
  For let but Youth be there
  With her light fooleries, who shall name
  The unnumbered brood of Care?
  No trial spared, no fall!
  Feuds, battles, murders, rage,
  Envy, and last of all,
  Despised, dim, friendless age!
  Ay, there all evils, crowded in one room.
  Each at his worst of ill, augments of gloom.

  Such lot is mine, and round this man of woe,
  As some gray headland of a northward shore
  Bears buffets of all wintry winds that blow,
  Fresh storms of Fate are bursting evermore
  In thunderous billows, borne
  Some from the waning light,
  Some through mid-noon, some from the rising morn,
  Some from the stars of Night.

© Sophocles