Saturday Poem

1955

Anger and envy much in vogue.
Yet this is the welfare state,
Health and contentment guaranteed.

Nature smiles; only historians
Wake in the night. One or two
Wise men make their wills.

And they do well. An age of self
Is always mother
To another age of hell.
.

by John Fowles
from Poems: John Fowles
Ecco Press, 1973