Iraqis carry the coffin of a victim of Sunday's car bomb explosion in the Shiite Holy city of Najaf Monday Dec. 20 2004. The Najaf car bomb detonated Sunday in central Maidan Square, where a large crowd of people had gathered for the funeral procession of a tribal sheik, killing at least 54 people and wounding 142. (AP Photo/Alla al-Marjani)
The Parable of the Old Man and the Young
by Wilfred Owen
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
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