<h2><SPAN name="page37"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>USELESSNESS</h2>
<p class="poetry">Let mine not be that saddest fate of all<br/>
To live beyond my greater self; to see<br/>
My faculties decaying, as the tree<br/>
Stands stark and helpless while its green leaves fall.<br/>
Let me hear rather the imperious call,<br/>
Which all men dread, in my glad morning time,<br/>
And follow death ere I have reached my prime,<br/>
Or drunk the strengthening cordial of life’s gall.<br/>
The lightning’s stroke or the fierce tempest blast<br/>
Which fells the green tree to the earth to-day<br/>
Is kinder than the calm that lets it last,<br/>
Unhappy witness of its own decay.<br/>
May no man ever look on me and say,<br/>
“She lives, but all her usefulness is past.”</p>
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