Cui Bono

What is Hope? A smiling rainbow

      Children follow through the wet;

’Tis not here, still yonder, yonder:

      Never urchin found it yet.

What is Life? A thawing iceboard

      On a sea with sunny shore;—

Gay we sail; it melts beneath us;

      We are sunk, and seen no more.

What is Man? A foolish baby,

      Vainly strives, and fights, and frets;

Demanding all, deserving nothing;—

      One small grave is what he gets.