What is life?
William Lawrence Chittenden’s poem “What Is Life?” appears in his 1893 collection “Ranch Verses”.
William Lawrence Chittenden was born on 23 March 1862 in Montclair, New Jersey, US, and he died on 24 September 1934 in New York, US, at the age of 72.Though originally from New Jersey, “Larry” Chittenden is often associated with Texas, where he established a ranch. He began to write poetry there, and in 1893, G.P. Putnam’s Sons published a collection of his poems, titled Ranch Verses, which earned him the sobriquet “poet-ranchman of Texas” and which has since been reprinted in many editions. In his epigraph to the book, Chittenden writes, “The verses in this little volume are offsprings of solitude—born in idle hours on a Texas ranch”.
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Ah, what is life? A bubble blown Across Time’s mystic stream; Its secret source, alas! unknown; Its future — still a dream?
Ah, what is life? A selfish hour, A thrill of thought and breath, A bud which blossoms to a flower That withers soon in death?
Ah, what is life? An echo’s sound, A passing sunbeam’s glow, A search for something never found, A pilgrimage of woe?
Ah, what is life? A shoreless sea That’s swept by gales of sorrow, A tear perhaps today for thee, Oblivion for tomorrow?
No! life’s a river broad and deep That flows to fairer seas Through pale mysterious realms of sleep To God’s eternities.