Part of a series:
This transcribed document is part of a digital collection, titled True and Candid
Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North
Carolina
written by
Lindemann, Erika
Source(s):
Title of article: "What Is Life?" Poem by Edmund D.
Covington, March 1844
Title of serial: The North Carolina
University Magazine 1 (March 1844): 37-38
Author: Edmund DeBerry Covington
Description: 2 pages, 2 page images
Note:
Call number VC378 UQm 1844 (North Carolina
Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Topics covered: Examples of Student Writing/Fiction, Poetry, Character Sketches Religion and Philosophy/Christianity and Christian Theology
Editorial practices The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 5 of
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For more information about transcription and other editorial decisions,
see Dr. Erika Lindemann's explanation under the section Editorial Practices.
Document Summary
Covington's poem rejects several definitions of life to accept one
based on a spirit of love and gratitude for life's blessings, including the
hope of Heaven.
"What Is Life?" Poem by
Edmund D. Covington
, March 1844; The North Carolina University Magazine 1 (March 1844): 37-381
Covington, Edmund DeBerry, 1823-1845
Page 37
WHAT IS LIFE?
Is it life to see the hours
Of youth's gay spring unheeded fly,
To droop in sadness, as the flowers,
We nurtured early, fade and die?
Is it life to feel the glow
Of love warm springing in our breast,
Chilled in its currents, as they flow,
The moment when we felt most blest?
To feel that childhood's joys are past,
That sorrowing age is stealing on,
No hope to cheer our heart at last
When all except our cares are gone.
No scene, no light of other days,
Of early joys remote from strife,
By which through memory to gaze
On youth awhile,—this is not life.
Page 38
To feel a spirit in us move,
Some kindred tie with man to own,
To know that there are those who love,
And smile on us when others frown.
To feel that youth was not unblest,
Nor manhood bowed with hopeless grief,
When age shall find our souls at rest
In hopes of Heaven. This—This is life.
Endnotes:
1.
The North Carolina University
Magazine 1 ( March 1844): 37-38, NCC.
Covington's
poem was drafted on page 16 of his journal. An
entry dated January 23, 1843, explains: "wrote some poetry tonight—a
little piece entitled—'What is life?—but I dont know that my muse solved
the question!" (Edmund De Berry Covington Papers, SHC). The poem as it
appeared in
The North Carolina University
Magazine serves as copy-text.