PREV / NEXT

Bloody Caesar

Stabb'd hundr'd times by hundr'd friends,

Blood-cover'd, but glowing white light out the holes—

Stands, turns, and faces:

"Sometime brothers:

No danger shalt befall thee now,

But only divers brilliance,

Once would-be-bright,

Now sinks dimm'd.

I've no magic

To threaten me revenge,

But only speak to you

A space, to me, too short."

The men were silent, frozen;

Still light pour'd forth,

Making blood-red look milk-white.

Thus spake their sometime Caesar:

"Well I love you, men—

Fathers, thinkers all—

I, too, love Rome,

Admire zeal in men,

And trust thine hearts

Were well-convinc'd.

I'm now to Roman heaven,

And ample peaceful field;

No military art is ask'd

To reap its gracious yield.

Love your wives and mothers;

Raise more Roman souls to sit my table!

Here wine awaits, and none of earthly tyranny.

. "

That radiance faded.

Limp, his body fell.

Most men remember'd

Only for a space too short,

Then current matter swept

Their future thought.