Reinterpreting Virtue: Retelling “Song 4” from Ben Jonson’s “Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue” by Laura Milette (2011).
An eye of looking back were well,
Or any murmur that would tell
The truth that Virtue faced
And lost,
Thousands of men at such high cost
Young, proud, and blind we train to be
Virtuous, we stand on guard for thee,
In death’s dark shadow we doubt
your Majesty,
Whose words once soft, now bullets be.
Line trenches for the cattle call
Attack, stay low, prey do not fall
When clear shots ring from
Nature’s wall
At Vimy Ridge.
You must return unto the hill,
And continue advance
With labour, and inhabit still
That Height and crown
From whence you hope to look down
Depends on triumphed Chance.
Three days offensive battle led,
Innocence and humanity tactically forced to bed,
Virtue called our bluff in dead.
Beware,
She will claim you as her own
Flee, run fast, this lie is your tomb,
Reality’s medal on your tunic sewn,
All to become a man?
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