Life or Death by Voltairine de Cleyre

A Soul, half through the Gate, said unto Life: “What dost thou offer me?” And Life replied: “Sorrow, unceasing struggle, disappointment; after these Darkness and silence.” The Soul said unto Death: “What dost thou offer me?” And Death replied: “In the beginning what Life gives at last.” Turning to Life: “And if I live and struggle?” “Others shall live and struggle after thee Counting it easier where thou hast passed.” “And by their struggles?” “Easier place shall be For others, still to rise to keener pain Of conquering Agony!”⁠—“And what have I To do with all these others? Who are they?” “Yourself!”⁠—“And all who went before?”⁠—“Yourself.” “The darkness and the silence, too, have end?” “They end in light and sound; peace ends in pain, Death ends in Me, and thou must glide from Self To Self, as light to shade and shade to light again. Choose!” The Soul, sighing, answered: “I will live.”