English Poetry. Ella Wheeler Wilcox. The Question. Элла Уилкокс.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Элла Уилкокс)

The Question

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?”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s other poems:

1. The Phantom Ball
2. The Giddy Girl
3. The Awakening (I love the tropics, where sun and rain)
4. The Bed
5. Bleak Weather

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

Percy Shelley (Перси Шелли) The Question (“I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way”)

Alice Meynell (Элис Мейнелл) The Question (“Virgil stayed Dante with a wayside word”)

Wilfred Gibson (Уилфрид Гибсон) The Question (“I WONDER if the old cow died or not”)

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