A maple, felled by the way;
I looked and sighed;
Struck down in leaf;
I sighed.
What had it done amiss?
Too lavish with its shade?
Certainly its leaves bespoke its strength and youth.
Why should I sigh?
Unless it be
Analogy.
Struck down in youth!
Pitiless Fate!
I bow, I cring, I grovel in the dust.
O may I not thus be untimely felled!
Prone; with the strength of life unspent.
A noble sight; yet sad.
I am content,
Nerved
To my life,
I stand in reverend defiance to the
Uncertainty.
The axe that severs me from earth
Will fell a tree in leaf.

Microcosm 1915

Earl Eugene Rahn '12
Killed in action, Bois de Larr Rapp, France, October 18, 1918