Explore "Davis Matlock" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Suppose it is nothing but the hive:
That there are drones and workers / And queens, and nothing but storing honey --
(Material things as well as culture and wisdom) --
For the next generation, this generation never living, / Except as it swarms in the sunlight of youth, / Strengthening its wings on what has been gathered, / And tasting, on the way to the hive / From the clover field, the delicate spoil.
Suppose all this, and suppose the truth:
That the nature of man is greater / Than nature's need in the hive;
And you must bear the burden of life, / As well as the urge from your spirit's excess --
Well, I say to live it out like a god / Sure of immortal life, though you are in doubt, / Is the way to live it.
If that doesn't make God proud of you, / Then God is nothing but gravitation, / Or sleep is the golden goal.