“Get work, get work; Be sure ’tis better than what you work to get.”
- Source
- Aurora Leigh
- Date
- 1856
- Local voice
- Fictional narrator · Aurora Leigh
Meaning of “Get work, get work; Be sure ’tis better…”
The verse novel distinguishes the formative value of doing worthwhile work from the external reward a person hopes the work will produce.
Where does it come from?
Aurora Leigh, Book III, printed page 95 / Wikisource scan leaf 104, scan-backed Chapman and Hall third edition (London, 1857), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #56621. Aurora describes three years of literary work in Kensington and says, “Get work, get work; Be sure ’tis better than what you work to get.” The passage remains first-person verse-novel narration about vocation and work rather than a universal instruction to overwork or neglect health and rest.
Why the local voice matters
Aurora Leigh, Book III; Project Gutenberg #56621. This is dialogue and argument within a verse novel, not a universal rule that work should override health, rest or other obligations.
