Skip to content
Linespedia

Which Are You?

Topics: classic

There are two kinds of people on earth to-day;     Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.     Not the sinner and the saint, for it's well understood,     The good are half bad and the bad are half good.     Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man's wealth,     You must first know the state of his conscience and health.     Not the humble and proud, for in life's little span,     Who puts on vain airs, is not counted a man.     Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years     Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.     No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean,     Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.     Wherever you go, you will find the earth's masses,     Are always divided in just these two classes.     And oddly enough, you will find too, I ween,     There's only one lifter to twenty who lean.     In which class are you? Are you easing the load,     Of overtaxed lifters, who toil down the road?     Or are you a leaner, who lets others share     Your portion of labor, and worry and care?

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"There are two kinds of people on earth to-day;..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Ella Wheeler Wilcox delivers a powerful performance in "Which Are You?"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Luck is the tuning of our inmost thought          To chord with God's great plan.         That done, ah! know,     Thy silent wishes to results"

"I stand in the blaze of the candle rays,          While my merry maidens three     Arrange each tress, and loop my dress,          And render m"

"I held the golden vessel of my soul     And prayed that God would fill it from on high.     Day after day the importuning cry     Grew stronger"

"How happy they are, in all seeming,          How gay, or how smilingly proud,     How brightly their faces are beaming,          These people"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"Luck is the tuning of our inmost thought          ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.