By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The speaker considers work, solitude and letting go, then describes a divided self and a danger that remains. Handwritten additions refer to the reader's will and thought.
The speaker begins with the possibility of looking back on what one has sown. He turns toward the self, saying no side remains to split and the hands raised to God have gone. The handwritten you thought precedes the final lines about thought and danger; the small unidentified mark above find contributes no defensible wording to this reading.
'Quiting' opens with proverbs, 'You can reap what you sow / And you can look back and know', then lists roles, 'You can be a sholder or bandit too', and choices, 'let it go for your will'. It narrows to 'No side of you left to split / Hands above to God are gone', and after a handwritten 'you thought' closes on 'Is all the thought so, low / Where danger is not alone...'.
The poem weighs quitting as both release and loss, moving from general advice to a stripped, almost prayerless self. Handwritten additions ('your', 'you thought') show the author pushing the address toward the reader during revision. Four-line stanzas and trailing ellipsis leave the ending unresolved.