The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him,
and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together.
Isaac the first-born spake and said,
My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering ?
Then Abram bound the youth with belt and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to
slay his son.
When lo! an angle called him out of
heaven,
Saying, Lay not they hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him, Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by it's horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him,
But the old man would not do so,
but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe,
one by one,

---- Wilfred Owen...