The Road

Because our lives are cowardly and sly,
Because we do not dare to take or give.
Because we scowl and pass each other by,

We do not live ; we do not dare to live.

We dive, each man, into his secret house,
And bolt the door, and listen in affright,
Each timid man beside a timid spouse,
With timid children huddled out of sight.

Kissing in secret, fighting secretly !
We crawl and hide like vermin in a hole,
Under the bravery of sun and sky
We flash our meannesses of face and soul.

Let us go out and walk upon the road,
And quit for evermore the brickbuilt den,
The lock and key, the hidden, shy abode
That separates us from our fellowmen.

And by contagion of the sun we may
Catch at a spark from that primeval fire,
And learn that we are better than our clay,
And equal to the peaks of our desire.

Songs From The Clay [1915]