THE BACHELOR'S SOLILOQUY
by: Anonymous
- O wed, or
not to wed;--that is the question:
- Whether 'tis nobler in a man to suffer
- The slings and sorrows of that blind young archer;
- Or fly to arms against a host of troubles,
- And at the altar end them. To woo--to wed--
- No more; and by this step to say we end
- The heartache, and the thousand hopes and fears
- The single suffer--'tis a consummation
- Devoutly to be wished. To woo--to wed;--
- To wed--perchance repent!--ay, there's the rub;
- For in that wedded state, what woes may come
- When we have launched upon that untried sea
- Must give us pause. There's the respect
- That makes celibacy of so long life;
- For who would bear the quips and jeers of friends,
- The husband's pity, and the coquette's scorn,
- The vacant hearth, the solitary cell,
- The unshared sorrow, and the void within,
- When he himself might his redemption gain
- With a fair damsel. Who would beauty shun
- To toil and plod over a barren heath;
- But that the dread of something yet beyond--
- The undiscovered country, from whose bourne
- No bachelor returns--puzzles the will,
- And makes us rather bear those ills we have
- Than fly to others that we know not of!
- Thus forethought does make cowards of us all,
- And thus the native hue of resolution
- Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
- And numberless flirtations, long pursued,
- With this regard, their currents turn awry
- And lose the name of marriage.
"The Bachelor's Soliloquy"
is reprinted from One Hundred Choice Selections. Ed. Phineas
Garrett. Philadelphia: Penn Publishing Co., 1897. |
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