Life or Death by Voltairine De Cleyre — Read

A Soul, half through the Gate, said unto Life: / "What dost thou offer me? " And Life replied: / "Sorrow, unceasing struggle, disappointment; after these / Darkness and silence. " The Soul said unto Death: / "What dost 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 thee / Counting it easier where thou hast passed."

"And by their struggles? " "Easier place shall be / For others, still to rise to keener pain / Of conquering Agony! " -- "And what have I

To 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 Self / To Self, as light to shade and shade to light again.

Choose! " The Soul, sighing, answered: "I will live. "