To a Workman, a would-be Suicide <br /> <br />MAN of despair and death, <br />Bought and slaved in the gangs, <br />Starved and stripped and left <br />To the pitiful, pitiless night, <br />Away with your selfish thoughts! <br />Touch not your ignorant life! <br />Are there no masters of slaves, <br />Jeering, cynical, strong — <br />Are there no brigands (say), <br />With the words of Christ on their lips, <br />And the daggers under their cloaks — <br />Is there not one of these <br />That you can steal on and kill? <br />O as the Swiss mountaineer <br />Dogged on the perilous heights <br />His disciplined conqueror foes: <br />Caught up one in his arms <br />And, laughing exultantly, <br />Plunged with him to the abyss: <br />So let it be with you! <br />An eye for an eye, and a tooth <br />For a tooth, and a life for a life! <br />Tell it, this hateful strong <br />Contemptuous, hypocrite World, <br />Tell it that, if we must live <br />As dogs and as worse than dogs, <br />At least we can die like men! <br />Tell it there is a woe <br />Not for the conquered alone! <br />An eye for an eye, and a tooth <br />For a tooth, and a life for a life.<br /><br />Francis William Lauderdale Adams<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-an-east-end-hovel/
