Our Father: A Short Photo-Essay

Before

After

This is Ezra Pound, and I'm sorry, this second photo makes me so sad, I've been unable to find a short phrase to describe my reaction to it. And yet to have no text seems the wrong response, too. The tragedy in his face is too large. I first considered a flip comment on the fruits of pride, but it would prove or make me a prig.

This photo was taken either just before or just after he spent 25 days in an open cage in Italy, 1945, a prisoner of the American Army. Madness, rage - and he seems just on the verge of collapsing into a heap of incoherent sobs. He is facing the death penalty for treason.

Grievous, sorrowful.