Poems (Hoffman)/The Two Roads

by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

THE TWO ROADS.

There are only two roads of life, my friend,
 Only two roads to take;
One, all of the way doth higher ascend,
And one, goeth down to the very end.
 Yours is the choice to make.

You are standing now at the open gate
 Beneath Youth's budding vine;
You must traverse one ere the dawn is late,
If you take the wrong, 'tis no freak of fate,
 For the free choice is thine.

There are only two roads, oh! pause and think,
 Hold rashness with bit and rein;
Lest low in the deep, stagnant mire you sink,
And only a trodden and broken link
 Be left of life's jeweled chain.

The road may look easier now, my friend,
 That leadeth forever more down;
Gayer flowers, I know, by the wayside bend,
But a bitterness with their bloom will blend,
 And they weave but a fading crown.

The road may look difficult from afar,
 That leadeth forevermore up;
But at every step there's a nearer star,
A laurel branch for each broken bar,
 And a pearl in each bitter cup.

There are only two roads, then oh, wisely spurn
 The glittering, tempting, snare;
Should you strive from its easy course to return
With torn, bleeding feet, you would climb but to learn
 That the hardest steeps are there.

There are only two roads, 'tis reason's call,
 The answer is yours alone;
Down! faster down! to a fathomless fall,
Or up 'till the mountains of triumph tall
 Are steps to a victor's throne.