Explore "George Gray" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I have studied many times / The marble which was chiseled for me --
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination / But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail / And catch the winds of destiny / Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness, / But life without meaning is the torture / Of restlessness and vague desire --
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.