Two Voices

               FIRST VOICE

Let us be circumspect, surrounded as we are
By every foe but one, and he from the woods watching. 
Let us be courteous, since we cannot be wise, guilty of no neglect, 
     pallid with seemly terror, yet regarding with indulgent eyes 
Violence, and compromise.

               SECOND VOICE

We shall learn nothing; or we shall learn it too late. Why should 
     we wait
For Death, who knows the road so well? Need we sit hatching— 
Such quiet fowl as we, meek to the touch,—a clutch of adder's
     eggs? Let us not turn them; let us not keep them warm; 
     let us leave our nests and flock and tell
All that we know, all that we can piece together, of a time when 
     all went, or seemed to go, well.