Taedium Vitae
To stab my youth with desperate knives, to wear
This paltry1 age's gaudy2 livery,
To let each base hand filch3 my treasury4,
To mesh5 my soul within a woman's hair,
And be mere6 Fortune's lackeyed groom7, - I swear
I love it not! these things are less to me
Than the thin foam8 that frets9 upon the sea,
Less than the thistledown of summer air
Which hath no seed: better to stand aloof10
Far from these slanderous11 fools who mock my life
Knowing me not, better the lowliest roof
Fit for the meanest hind12 to sojourn13 in,
Than to go back to that hoarse14 cave of strife15
Where my white soul first kissed the mouth of sin.