---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Fox, Ruth May
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 10
number: 1
published: 1906-11
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Ruth May Fox, "Which? A Poem," *Improvement Era* 10, no. 1 (November 1906): 10.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera101unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera101unse
start_page: 10
end_page: 10
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-11)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera101unse
  publication_year: 1906
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Which? A Poem

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WHICH?

 (For the Improvement Era.)

 If, when I pass the portal grey, Eternal rest awaits me; If I 'shall meet no obstacle,

 And struggles all forsake me: Then let me sleep, Forever sleep.

 If sympathy I shall not feel, For dear ones left behind me Nor sorrow's tear ne'er dim mine eyes, But placid goodness blind me Then let me sleep, Forever sleep.

 If all regret shall cease to be,

 For mortal sin and failing; My ears and heart be tightly closed To pleading moans and wailing, Then let me sleep, Forever sleep.

 But if I find there endless peace, Which passeth understanding, Because of penitence of mine, And joy in his commanding; Then let me live, Forever live.

 If I may carry words of hope,

 To spirits long benighted,

 And show them that with wondrous love, Their prison should be lighted; 0, let me live, Forever live!

 If,with the moon beneath my feet, And suns above me shining, The stars may be my stepping stones, To aid me in my climbing; Then I shall live, In glory live! Salt Lake City, Utah. Ruth May Fox.