Sonnet XXXII
Life and Death. 4.
IF at one door stands life to cheat our trust,
And at another, death, to mock because
We thought life’s promise good; if all that was
And is and should be ends in fume and dust—
Then let us live for joy alone—the rust
Of ease encase our minds—the grader laws
Of souls be set aside. Let no man pause
To weigh between his virtue and his lust.
From first to last life baffles all our hopes
Of aught but present bliss. Death waits to mock
Our haste to indorse a visionary bond.
Let pleasure dance us down earth’s sunny slopes,
And crown our heads with roses, ere the shock
Of thunder falls. There is no life beyond?
