The World is Against Me!

“The world is against me”, he said with a sigh.

“Somebody stops every scheme I try

The world has me down and is keeping me there. 

I don’t get a chance. Oh! The world is unfair!

When a fellow is poor, then he can’t get a show;

The world is determined to keep him down low.”
“What of Abe Lincoln?” I asked.

“Would you say, that he was much richer than you are today?

He hadn’t the chance of making his mark, 

And his outlook was exceedingly dark;

Yet he clung to his purpose with courage most grim… And got to the top…

Was the world against him?”
“What of Ben Franklin?” I’ve often heard it said,

That many a times he went hungry to bed. 

He started with nothing but courage to climb…

But patiently struggled and waited his time.

He dangled awhile from real poverty’s limb,

Yet he got to the top… Was the world against him?
“I could name a dozen, yes, hundreds, I guess,

Of poor boys, who’ve patiently climbed to success;

All boys who were down and who struggled alone,

Who’ve fought themselves rich, if fortune they’d known;

Yet they rose in the world you are so quick to condemn,

And, I’m asking you now, was the world against them?”

-Edgar A. Guest.