The Tangled Skein
TRY we life-long, we can neverStraighten out life’s tangled skein,Why should we, in vain endeavour,Guess and guess and guess again?Life’s a pudding full of plumsCare’s a canker that benumbs.Wherefore waste our elocutionOn impossible solution?Life’s a pleasant institution,Let us take it as it comes!
Set aside the dull enigma,We shall guess it all too soon;Failure brings no kind of stigma—Dance we to another tune!String the lyre and fill the cup,Lest on sorrow we should sup;Hop and skip to Fancy’s fiddle,Hands across and down the middle—Life’s perhaps the only riddleThat we shrink from giving up!