Explore "The Question" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Beside us in our seeking after pleasures, / Through all our restless striving after fame, / Through all our search for worldly gains and treasures, / There walketh one whom no man likes to name. / Silent he follows, veiled of form and feature, / Indifferent if we sorrow or rejoice, / Yet that day comes when every living creature / Must look upon his face and hear his voice.
When that day comes to you, and Death, unmasking, / Shall bar your path, and say, "Behold the end," / What are the questions that he will be asking / About your past? Have you considered, friend? / I think he will not chide you for your sinning, / Nor for your creeds or dogmas will he care; / He will but ask, "From your life's first beginning / How many burdens have you helped to bear? "