Thursday, January 08, 2026
The Harmless Dead
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?), "To E.S. Salomon, Who in a Memorial Day oration protested bitterly against decorating the graves of Confederate dead," Black Beetles in Amber (New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1911), pp. 62-64 (lines 21-24):
‹Older
What if the dead whom still you hateId., lines 33-36:
Were wrong? Are you so surely right?
We know the issues of the fight —
The sword is but an advocate.
What most we censure, men as wiseId., lines 57-60:
Have reverently practiced; nor
Will future wisdom fail to war
On principles we dearly prize.
The wretch, whate'er his life and lot,
Who does not love the harmless dead
With all his heart and all his head —
May God forgive him, I shall not.
