Spoon River Anthology

Berkeley, Thursday, August 6, 2026 0:54 am

“George Gray” poem written Edgar Lee Masters (I do not know on which year though)

Here I am transcribing the poem. I hate copy and paste for writing at least. It has several uses for moving things around though, with the cutting tool, or for organizing a text to print, while pasting it on a new document and getting rid of pictures and figures, to save ink on the printer, while one can look closer to those figures on the screen. Copy and paste is very helpful for special characters as well, such as the em dash below, which would take me more time than the time I have now to figure out how to write the em dash here in word press. In some other text editing softwares, the em dash I think is — + space. There a trick if someone reads this.

I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me—
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disiillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the wind of destiny
Whenever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire—
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

I will complete transcribing this short poem in another occasion. It intersting how at times one might loss some sense of time.

The reference from where I learned the poem is the following.

St Thérèse of Lisieux, O.C.D. 2019. Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux. Study Edition. (trans.) John Clarke, O.C.D. Prepared by Mary Foley, O.C.D. ICS Publications. Institute of Carmelite Studies. Washington D.C.; pp. 70-71