In memory of all the Animals Victims of World War I and all the Stupid Wars before and after

On this day, I wish to pay a tribute to the Animals killed during World War I and all the stupid wars before and after.

I obviously appreciate the sentiment, but I do not like at all the memorial monument inaugurated in Paris two years ago: it lacks emotion, as the animals' metal silhouettes are cold and anonymous and the presence of the man holding the pigeon superfluous.

When I saw this monument, I disliked it so much that I did not even want to take a picture of it: the photograph above is taken from the Marie de Paris website. Of course, it is not as hideous as the abominable Oscar Wilde's statue in Dublin, nevertheless, I wish this tribute was as heartfelt as the beautiful poem O miei dolci animali, written during World War II and published in 1947 by Salvatore Quasimodo (1901-1968), the Sicilian Ambitious Outsider from a working-class family who could not afford literary studies and who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959.

Below, Salvatore Quasimodo carrying on his shoulders a beautiful Pupo Siciliano: it is my favourite photograph of him. I have fond memories of the deep study of his poetic works and Dante's Paradiso for the arduous concours externe de l'agregation: I was the only one who really loved and felt the value and the meaning of Poetry, and this helped me a lot in succeeding the difficult épreuves écrites et orales.

[Oh, yes, of course, I am "arrogant", I know, as every Poor and Ambitious Outsider... :) ].

There was a fierce rivalry between Salvatore Quasimodo, Eugenio Montale, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature only in 1975, and Giuseppe Ungaretti, who hated Quasimodo even more, since he was never awarded the Nobel Prize.

After all, Poets can be geniuses, yet they are imperfect human beings as everyone, and the majority of Humans feel more amour propre than amour de soi - the latter being the sanest, and the most natural, that every Animal and very few Humans feel, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (one of my favourite philosophers) says.

I am very grateful to God because I feel more amour de moi than amour propre. I will develop this concept in another article, when (?) I have the time.

Vera da Pozzo

Paris, 11.11.2026

Article by me (who else?) and photographs found on the Web.

(C) Vera da Pozzo

(C) Italy is Mine

(C) Italy is Mine and It owes Me a Living

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