Censors

Censors are dead men
set up to judge between life and death.
For no live, sunny man would be a censor,
he’d just laugh.
But censors, being dead men,
have a stern eye on life.
—That thing’s alive! It’s dangerous.
Make away with it!—
And when the execution is performed
you hear the stertorous, self-righteous heavy
breathing of the dead men,
the censors, breathing with relief.
 
 
DH Lawrence, “Censors”