Emancipation by Maltbie D. Babcock

Why be afraid of death
as though your life were breath?
Death but anoints your eyes
with clay. O glad surprise!

Why should you be forlorn?
Death only husks the corn.
Why should you fear to meet
the thresher of the wheat?

Is sleep a thing to dread?
Yet sleeping you are dead
Till you awake and rise,
here, or beyond the skies.

Why should it be a wrench
to leave your wooden bench?
Why not with happy shout
run home when school is out?

The dear ones left behind�
O foolish one and blind,
A day, and you will meet�
a night, and you will greet.

This is the death of Death,
to breathe away a breath
And know the end of strife,
and taste the deathless life.

And joy without a fear,
and smile without a tear,
And work, nor care to rest,
and find the last the best.

__________________
Andrew