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IMMORTALITY.
When I was grass, perhaps I may have wept As every year the grass-blades paled and slept; Or shrieked in anguish impotent, beneath The smooth impartial cropping of great teeth— I don’t remember much what came to pass When I was grass. When I was monkey, I’m afraid the trees Weren’t always havens of contented ease; Things killed us, and we never could tell why; No doubt we blamed the earth or sea or sky— I have forgotten my rebellion’s shape When I was ape. Now I have reached the comfortable skin This stage of living is enveloped in, And hold the spirit of my mighty race Self-conscious prisoner under one white face,— I’m awfully afraid I’m going to die, Now I am I. So I have planned a hypothetic life To pay me somehow for my toil and strife. Blessed or damned, I someway must contrive That I eternally be kept alive! In this an endless, boundless bliss I see,— Eternal me!
When I was man, no doubt I used to care About the little things that happened there, And fret to see the years keep going by, And nations, families, and persons die. I didn’t much appreciate life’s plan When I was man.
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