About suffering they were never wrong, br The Old Masters; how well, they understood br Its human position; how it takes place br While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; br How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting br For the miraculous birth, there always must be br Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating br On a pond at the edge of the wood: br They never forgot br That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course br Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot br Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse br Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. br br In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away br Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may br Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, br But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone br As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green br Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen br Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, br had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.