Epitaph on a Tyrant and Charles Taylor

W.H. Auden

Justice has finally been served. Charles Taylor, the brutal warlord who became president of Liberia and provided arms to rebels in Sierra Leone that led to horrific treatment of citizens that included the chopping off of arms and hands, was convicted by an international crimes court in Leidshendam, Netherlands of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He will be sentenced next month. Check out the Washington Post article Charles Taylor Conviction.

Reading this news made me think of an excellent poem written by W. H. Auden in 1939. In light of World War II, Auden knew a thing or two about tyrants and evil. Nothing has changed since then.


                        Epitaph on a Tyrant

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets,
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried little children died in the streets.