Classic Poem

" TO BE DEAD . "

I F I should have void darkness in my eyes
While there were violets in the sun to see;
If I should fail to hear my child's sweet cries,
Or any bird's voice in our threshold tree;

If I should cease to answer love or wit:
Blind, deaf, or dumb, how bitter each must be!
Blind, deaf, or dumb — I will not think of it!
. . . . Yet the night comes when I shall be all three.