History Lessons

The fourteenth hailed a Reaper grim,
Who slashed the skies and made them dim.

In the fifteenth soft rose petals fell;
The Plantagenets rode into Hell.

In the sixteenth a fat king ate meat,
And upon his many wives did beat.

In the seventeenth a lofty king would tax,
And meet his maker by a bloody axe.

The eighteenth came: powdered wigs in season;
Man danced to the music of sweet Reason.

In the nineteenth dread machines took hold,
And man was simply bought and sold.

The twentieth dawned all drenched in blood;
Red rivers foaming as if in flood.

This century sees a plastic world;
From noisy cots new toys are hurled.

Do we ever learn from history’s woes?
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose.”