Paraphrase
We shriek to live, but no man ever lives Till he has rid the ghost of human breath; We dream to die, but no man ever dies Till he has quit the road that runs to death.
Edwin Arlington Robinson
We shriek to live, but no man ever lives Till he has rid the ghost of human breath; We dream to die, but no man ever dies Till he has quit the road that runs to death.
Robinson sets two human impulses side by side: we clutch at life and we fantasize about death, yet neither one is the real thing. The speaker’s tone is terse and almost riddling, but not cruel—more like someone stating a hard spiritual truth.
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