THE MOCKERY OF LIFE <br />God! What a mockery is this life of ours! <br />Cast forth in blood and pain from our mother's womb, <br />Most like an excrement, and weeping showers <br />Of senseless tears: unreasoning, naked, dumb, <br />The symbol of all weakness and the sum: <br />Our very life a sufferance.--Presently, <br />Grown stronger, we must fight for standing--room <br />Upon the earth, and the bare liberty <br />To breathe and move. We crave the right to toil. <br />We push, we strive, we jostle with the rest. <br />We learn new courage, stifle our old fears, <br />Stand with stiff backs, take part in every broil. <br />It may be that we love, that we are blest. <br />It may be, for a little space of years, <br />We conquer fate and half forget our tears.<br /><br />Wilfrid Scawen Blunt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-love-sonnets-of-proteus-part-iii-gods-and-false-gods-lxxiv/
