Hugh Sykes Davies (1909-1984 / Yorkshire, England)

If the father’s bankrupt, and the sons fail,
Blaming it on their own bad start,
Say the father should have gone to gaol,
Forgetting their grandfather’s part.

So with all centuries of blame
Fathers by their children cursed,
Say that all the trouble came
From Eve and Adam first.

Both wrong: are wronged. But we are wronged
the most.
Their life was deep, but only deep, immersed.
We fathom further, deep enough to boast
We know a worse beneath our father’s worst.

Cambridge Review, 52/1290 (10 June 1931), 493.