by George Norman Douglas (1868 - 1952)
[No title] See original
Language: English
Consider well your neighbour, what an imbecile he is.
Then ask yourself whether it be worth while paying any attention
to what he thinks of you. Life is too short, and death
the end of all things. Life must be lived, not endured.
...
Therefore the sage will go his way, prepared to find
himself growing ever more out of sympathy with vulgar
trends of opinion, ...
He scorns to make proselytes among his fellows:
they are not worth it. He has better things to do.
While others nurse their griefs, he nurses his joy.
He endeavours to find himself at no matter what cost,
and to be true to that self when found — a worthy and
ample occupation for a life-time.
Note: these are prose selections. The line breaks are arbitrary.
1 omitted by Hinton.Composition:
- Set to music by Alistair Hinton (b. 1950), no title, op. 13 no. 5i (1969-1977) [ high voice and string quintet ], from String Quintet, no. 5i
Text Authorship:
- by George Norman Douglas (1868 - 1952), no title, appears in Alone, New York, Robert M. McBride & Company, first published 1922
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Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-09-09
Line count: 15
Word count: 133