de CLEYRE, Voltairine. "Life or Death"
A Poem
literature: poetryDE CLEYRE, Voltairine (1866-1912)Open Court : 6 (1892) p.3302
A Soul, half through the Gate, said unto Life:"What does thou offer me?" And Life replied:"Sorrow, unceasing struggle, disappointment; after theseDarkness and silence." The Soul said unto Death:"What does thou offer me?" And Death replied:"In the beginning what Life gives at last."Turning to Life: "And if I live and struggle?""Others shall live and struggle after theeCounting it easier where thou hast passed.""And by their struggles?" "Easier place shall beFor others, still to rise to keener painOf conquering Agony!" "and what have ITo do with all these others? Who are they?""Yourself!" "And all who went before?" "Yourself.""The darkness and the silence, too, have end?""They end in light and sound; peace ends in pain,Death ends in Me, and thou must glide from SelfTo Self, as light to shade and shade to light again.Choose!" The Soul, sighing, answered: "I will live."
— Philadelphia, May 1892