We toil, and strain and tug from youth’s fair prime,
And drag a chain for years, a weary weight!
Away with Action and Laborious Life;
They were not made for man,
In Nature’s plan,
For man is made for quiet, not for strife.
The pearl is shaped serenely in its shell
In the still waters of the ocean deep;
The buried seed begins to pulp and swell
In Earth’s warm bosom in profoundest sleep;