Poem by Thomas Carlyle

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.

Note 
The title may be translated as “of what good” (Latin).

1. Today

Adam Gordon Cui Bono ("Oh! wind that whistles o'er thorns and thistles")

Print

1869 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version