Sonnet: Dirge Or Anthem? Poem by Dr John Celes

The String of Life when God cuts premature,
For Bards young who had burnt their midnight-oil,
Angered I feel at God’s cruel nature,
Is this His earthly reward for their toil?

Hit by disease and utter poverty,
In vain they’d struggled for mere existence;
Deserving though ne’er came prosperity;
They were given the earthly death-sentence!

Why hast Thou been God, so cruel to them?
If only they were allowed to live long,
My Dirge should have been turned into Anthem;
This would have become my most joyous song.

But wait, perhaps thou didst do what was best;
Rebuke God not; He gives at times men test!