Read "Wherefore" by Madison Cawein online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
/ I would not see, yet must behold / The truth they preach in church and hall; / And question so, -- Is death then all, / And life an idle tale that's told?
/ The myriad wonders art hath wrought / I deemed eternal as God's love: / No more than shadows these shall prove, / And insubstantial as a thought.
/ And love and labor, who have gone, / Hand in close hand, and civilized / The wilderness, these shall be prized / No more than if they had not done.
/ Then wherefore strive? Why strain and bend / Beneath a burden so unjust? / Our works are builded out of dust, / And dust their universal end.