Cui Bono

Cui Bono

Original Text

Thomas Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, I (London: Chapman and Hall, 1872): 288-89.

2    Children follow through the wet;
3'Tis not here, still yonder, yonder:
4    Never urchin found it yet.
5What is Life? A thawing iceboard
6    On a sea with sunny shore; --
7Gay we sail; it melts beneath us;
8    We are sunk, and seen no more.
9What is Man? A foolish baby,
10    Vainly strives, and fights, and frets;
11Demanding all, deserving nothing; --
12    One small grave is what he gets.

Notes

1] The title may be translated as "for whose benefit" or "to whose advantage" (Latin). Back to Line
Publication Notes

Chaos 1.28 (1830): 110

RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 2001.
Rhyme