remember this poem?

it's familiar to me also..I'm thinking maybe a required reading sort of poem back from high school. good luck.
is there a need to know, or are you just proving to yourself that your brain still works?

Actually, I can't say that I recall any one poem, specifically that fits your description, but there are a number of poems by Lucretius, which can be found at: http://www.completeclassics.com/p/m/poem.asp?poem=444270&poet=36407&num=1&total=32 which may, in whole or part, fit the bill.

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In the meantime, Here is an old poem of mine that I revised about a year ago and posted on Shadow Poetry that covers much of the subject matter involved.

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"Emergence"

Deep in the loathsome muck they lie,
Wriggling and writhing like worms in filth, they cry,
While one man, in trying to stand above the muck,
Gazed across the land he'd never seen,
Except below and through the waste itself,

And when a ray of sun had fallen upon his eyes,
He pulled his stinking body up above the waste,
Until his head was free and then his hands,
And upon his knee he could brace himself
For the strength to span the distance upward,
And stand, at last, to let the rains come down,
And cleanse the terrible filth from off his soul:
To make him clean and set him free
From the world below.

Then what did he, who was finally free,
And wanted to be, and needed to be do......
He bent back down into the filth,
To help another through.

Copyright (c) Spring 1961 James R. Hoye