March 15, 2016

IDES OF MARCH
















On marble steps stained deep and dark
the senate slew Rome’s patriarch,
stabbed as if within a play
beneath the theater’s arch.
Oh, rue the day! “Et tu, Brute?"
Beware the Ides of March!
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods?

- The Lays of Ancient Rome

✤ ✤ ✤ ✤ ✤

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

- Lord Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam