Petrarchan Sonnet on a Bouguereau

For Kith & Kin

Patriot lost, mourned by no country, but

a wife and infant attend in tearful

elegy—all grief is personal—Full

as these heroes’ lives, too young they die, glut

Death with his impatient hosts. Who knows what

change each war can bring? Our headlines are full

of patriotic verve . . . Who’s this to fool?

A soldier dies for kith & kin. One may strut

to war with flag and chin held high, duty

filling heart and mind, but when the killing

begins, Life’s instinct shrugs nobility

aside so the panicked heart can beat. Thrilling

to war is the place of mad men—zealotry

a tyrant more evil than any despot king.

David M Pitchford

Picture: “Elegy” by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1899
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