The Life Theoretic

While I have been fumbling over books
  And thinking about God and the Devil and all,
  Other young men have been battling with the days
  And others have been kissing the beautiful women.
  They have brazen faces like battering-rams.
  But I who think about books and such--
  I crumble to impotent dust before the struggling,
  And the women palsy me with fear.
  But when it comes to fumbling over books
  And thinking about God and the Devil and all,
  Why, there I am.
  But perhaps the battering-rams are in the right of it,
  Perhaps, perhaps ... God knows.