IF AND IF AND IF

 

IF AND IF AND IF

1.     If you want to know what life is, read the following lines by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) in his poem “A PSALM OF LIFE “ :

            Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

            Life is but an empty dream !

            Foe the soul is that slumbers ,

            And things are not what they seem.

           

            Life is real ! Life is earnest !

            And the grave is not its goal;

            “Dust thou art, to dust returnest,”

            Was not spoken of the soul,         

And if you want to be counted among the great, read the following lines from the same poem:

            Lives of great men all remind us

            We can make our lives sublime,

            And, departing, leave behind us

            Footprints on the sands of time;-

           

            Footprints, that perhaps another,

            Sailing, o’er life’s solemn main,

            A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

            Seeing, shall take heart again.

2.     If you want to be called brave and collect lots of dreadful weapons, don’t become arrogant. Death is a great leveller. In a 17^th century funeral song the English poet and playwright James Shirley (1596-1666) says that death is the ultimate equalizer, making no distinction between the powerful and the weak.  Read the lines that follow:

            The glories of our blood and state

            Are shadows, not substantial things,

            There is no armour against Fate;

            Death lays his icy hand on kings.

            Sceptre and Crown

            Must tumble down,

            And in the dust be equal made

            With the poor crooked scythe and spade.     

3.     Finally, if you want to read the words a repentant powerful king who was extremely proud of his massive power, read OZYMANDIAS,  a sonnet written by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822). This sonnet talks about the discovery of a semi-destroyed and decaying statue of Ramessses II, (third pharaoh of the 19^th dynasty of Egypt)  also known as Ozymandias, and shows how power deteriorates and does not last for ever. On the pedestal of the said statue, the words that appear are:

            “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings.

            Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Shelley adds: Nothing beside remains round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away.

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

6^th March 2026