A Sonnet Poem by David Mitchell

My soul was sorrowful, and burdened sore
With suffering and pain without a cause.
My sighs went up to heaven to implore
The Eternal that I might obtain a pause,
At least, from so great agony; and tears
Unbidden fell from dark and weary eyes
That feared of this a riverful of years
And sadness, for how slow the future flies.

And then I saw an old man, sick in bed,
A starving child, its mother giving birth,
A battlefield bestrewed with heaps of dead.
I saw them being laid beneath the earth;
And having seen a city all enflamed,
I saw myself; and then I was ashamed.