THERE is no laughter in the natural world <br />Of beast or fish or bird, though no sad doubt <br />Of their futurity to them unfurled <br />Has dared to check the mirth-compelling shout. <br />The lion roars his solemn thunder out <br />To the sleeping woods. The eagle screams her cry. <br />Even the lark must strain a serious throat <br />To hurl his blest defiance at the sky. <br />Fear, anger, jealousy, have found a voice. <br />Love’s pain or rapture the brute bosoms swell. <br />Nature has symbols for her nobler joys, <br />Her nobler sorrows. Who had dared foretell <br />That only man, by some sad mockery, <br />Should learn to laugh who learns that he must die?<br /><br />Wilfrid Scawen Blunt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/laughter-and-death/
