Work's Fatherings

Is it not a fact, my boy  
it’s all too often true
that what hard toil
is really wont to father in
a person’s body and
his mind,
his spirit  too  
is just the opposite  
of joy.
 
It’s actually much misery and woe
fatigue of soul,
the diminution  
of one’s strength,
vitality,
one’s loss of wit
and will to carry on with life
 
and so much so
that what one almost always seeks
when under travail’s lash
for long
is somehow being freed of it.
.