Because I am young, therefore I must be killed;
Because I am strong, so must my strength be maimed;
Because I love life (thus it is willed)
The joy of life from me a forfeit’s claimed.
If I were old or weak, if foul disease
Had robbed me of all love of living—then
Life would be mine to use as I might please;
Such the all-wise arbitraments of men!
Poor mad mankind! that like some Herod calls
For one wide holocaust of youth and strength!
Bitter your wakening when the curtain falls
Upon your drunken drama, and at length
With vision uninflamed you then behold
A world of sick and halt and weak and old.
(Eliot Crawshay Williams)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Life Poems, World Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Youth Poems, Mankind Poems, Drama PoemsBased on Keywords: holocaust, all-wise, living-