119 292
ten poems
119
What else could the Committee of Public Safety do,
fearing, as they did, defeat in the civil war,
but reassert both means and ends?
Sadly, Robespierre’s ‘Republic of virtue’
never saw the light of day,
and the once libertarian opponent of the death penalty,
took the rap, and was guillotened
without trial on July 27, 1794, relieving him
of both ‘virtue’ and ‘terror’,
leaving us to debate, do the means ever justify the end?