all duty never leisure

this is the way all duty never leisure

you think of life as one long noble strain

to take this path and from all hope abstain

 

your only wish to banish every pleasure

into a future lacking human pain

this is the way all duty never leisure

 

to think of what should be your honest treasure

rather you hoard each little worthless grain

as if it sent a signal to your brain

this is the way all duty never leisure

not going the right way

 those who would listen to the tricky sun

expecting that its laughter portends good

are certain that they have not understood

when they look up and see the staring gun

truth does not liberate this fact will stun

the childish mind that thinks in terms of should

and sees the living man as saint in wood

finds now that something different has been spun

into the shadow no one seeks to go

but those deep voices and their angry tone

have more to say and seem today more true

about those matters that not one could know

before the knife had cut through to the bone

exposing so much sorrow to the view