Posted by Eugene Volokh:
<i>Hymn of the Breaking Strain</i>:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_05_01-2005_05_07.shtml#1115155428
Today's [1]sad L.A. Times story about an FBI counter-terrorism agent
who killed himself, apparently because of job-related strain, reminds
me of [2]Rudyard Kipling's Hymn of the Breaking Strain. I thought I'd
pass along my favorite stanzas:
The careful text-books measure (Let all who build beware!) The
load, the shock, the pressure Material can bear. So, when the
buckled girder Lets down the grinding span, 'The blame of loss, or
murder, Is laid upon the man. Not on the Stuff -- the Man.
But in our daily dealing With stone and steel, we find The Gods
have no such feeling Of justice toward mankind. To no set gauge
they make us -- For no laid course prepare -- And presently
o'ertake us With loads we cannot bear: Too merciless to bear.
The prudent text-books give it In tables at the end The stress that
shears a rivet Or makes a tie-bar bend -- What traffic wrecks
macadam -- What concrete should endure -- but we, poor Sons of Adam
Have no such literature, To warn us or make sure . . . .
We only of Creation (Oh, luckier bridge and rail) Abide the twin
damnation -- To fail and know we fail. Yet we -- by which sole
token We know we once were Gods -- Take shame in being broken
However great the odds -- The burden of the Odds. . . .
References
1.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-counter3may03,1,4433791.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
2. http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_strain.htm
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