Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Does this mean you should be proud and humble or lucky but guilty?
Fifth Philosopher's Song
- by Aldous Huxley (1920)
A million million spermatozoa
All of them alive;
Out of their cataclysm but one poor Noah
Dare hope to survive.
And among that billion minus one
Might have chanced to be Shakespeare, another Newton, a new Donne-
But the One was Me.
Shame to have ousted your betters thus,
Taking ark while the others remained outside!
Better for all of us, froward Homunculus,
If you'd quietly died!
2 Answers
- David MLv 41 decade agoFavorite Answer
I think that the speaker is reflecting on his place in the world and the random nature of things, not necessarily with guilt, but definitely with a sense of inferiority. He refers to himself as Homunculus which means "little man." On the bright side, one of the billion might have been the next Hitler, bin Laden or Rod McKuen!
- 1 decade ago
Ah but death dear father profits not
His empires good what thought for tomorrow
Ah accursed life and death not comes
As he sums his profit with mirth
Father father, strike the blow
Life much travelled remains far to go
And woe accursed life, ne’er happy
I bled and shed not a tear, it matters not.
End, cease terminate this dreadful existence
A pittance for your sixpence
A life wasted or one of no consequence
I damned today and you forever more ...
<<<