Herr Mueller

Born in Koblenz, 1801,

Sweet as honey and bright as the sun,

A shoemaker’s boy his memoir begun,

At the age of eighteen, a student at Bonn.

There he’d learn that of a mind so well-versed,

Nothing is better, but nothing is worse.

Of the questions that plagued him, none were so great

As those of existence and those of fate.

Before very long, he’d earned his degree.

A doctor of medicine at age twenty-three.

Of the questions that plagued him, he set them aside.

“I’m quite young,” he thought, “and I’ve plenty of time.”

He’d vastly improved his station in life.

He’d landed a job, and found a good wife.

He’d written some books, and paid little mind

To the questions that loomed closely behind.

But come 26, the questions would strike,

Of life and death and fate and the like.

Leveled and lost, he’d fallen behind,

Ruined and ravaged and wrecked by his mind.

It took five months, but he got back to work.

The questions, he thought, he’d finally shirked.

He’d conducted some research of brilliant design,

And became a professor at age 29.

But ten years passed and they struck once again.

His wife would console him, and so would his friends.

“Look, my love, at this life you have made,

At all that you’ve done in the past decade.”

And so he recovered just as before,

Peeling his face from off of the floor.

But the questions would strike him again and again,

And his glory would pass to other men.

The last attack came at an unknown date.

But many have said “‘Twas spring, 58.”

He was aged 47, and no one said why,

But those who knew him, knew how he died.

Reviews

[John the Baptist]

Exceptionally well rhymed and compelling story here. There is such a thing as knowing too much, and Professor Mueller would not admit there are certain questions that can't be answered. Seems as though the combination did him in.

[Grant]

Thank you, John. Yes, knowledge--like material things, like drugs, like power, like status, and like money--is another one of those things that the more you have, the more you need.