Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Of Too Much Care

Here's the text accompanying the "Of Too Much Care" woodcut I posted earlier:

A fool is he who fain would bear
What's heavier than mortal share,
And who alone would do what three
Could not do with impunity,
Who takes the world upon his back
Will soon succumb beneath his pack.

They say 'twas Alexander's whim:
The world was far too small for him,

He sweated in it, I assume,
Because he had too little room,
Yet finally this monarch grand
Got only seven feet of land.
For death alone can show a man
How much of earth he needs may span;
A greater, mightier man than that,
Diogenes, had but a vat,
And nothing else he e'er possessed,
By no desire was he oppressed,

Had but the king not kept the sun
From lighting up his humble tun.

Who has ambitions bold and high
Must take a chance to do or die.
What profits it to win the earth
And yet to suffer want and dearth?
Why let the body ride on high,
While into hell the soul must fly?
Who'd furnish shoes, for geese's feet
And sweep all alleys, every street,
And level mountain off and vale,
He'll have no peace in any dale.

Nor care nor worries aught avail,
They make men haggard, lean, and pale
And those are fools who fret and falter
Because of things they cannot alter.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Originally found at:

www.thunder-monkey.com

1:37 PM  

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