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　　EXISTENCE, CONSIDERED IN ITSELF, NO BLESSING

　　From the Latin of Palingenius

　　(1832)

　　The Poet, after a seeming approval of suicide, from a consideration of the cares and crimes of life, finally rejecting it, discusses the negative importance of existence, contemplated in itself, without reference to good or evil.

　　Of these sad truths consideration had—

　　Thou shalt not fear to quit this world so mad,

　　So wicked; but the tenet rather hold

　　Of wise Calanus, and his followers old,

　　Who with their own wills their own freedom wrought,

　　And by self-slaughter their dismissal sought

　　From this dark den of crime—this horrid lair

　　Of men, that savager than monsters are;

　　And scorning longer, in this tangled mesh

　　Of ills, to wait on perishable flesh,

　　Did with their desperate hands anticipate

　　The too, too slow relief of lingering fate.

　　And if religion did not stay thine hand,

　　And God, and Plato's wise behests, withstand,

　　I would in like case counsel thee to throw

　　This senseless burden off, of cares below.

　　Not wine, as wine, men choose, but as it came

　　From such or such a vintage: 'tis the same

　　With life, which simply must be understood

　　A black negation, if it be not good.

　　But if 'tis wretched all—as men decline

　　And loath the sour lees of corrupted wine—

　　'Tis so to be contemn'd. Merely TO BE

　　Is not a boon to seek, nor ill to flee,

　　Seeing that every vilest little Thing

　　Has it in common, from a gnat's small wing,

　　A creeping worm, down to the moveless stone,

　　And crumbling bark from trees. Unless TO BE,

　　And TO BE BLEST, be one, I do not see

　　In bare existence, as existence, aught

　　That's worthy to be loved, or to be sought. The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 4