His roles, would leave to the clouds the righting, /
The immediate and intolerable need /
Of the very body instinctively crying /
A challenge to a final solution.

Wallace Stevens, "Examination of the Hero in a Time of War"

And headsman and trumpeteer and feather /
In casque and scaffold orator, fortified /
By gestures of a mortal perfection. /
What misanthrope, impugning heroica, /
Maligning his costumes and disputing /
...

It is the common man against evil, /
Now. War as a punishment. The hero /
As hangman, a little sick of blood, of /
The deep sigh with which the hanging ends, close /
To his gorge, hangman, once helmet-maker /
...