A poet of genius, who even before the war had been an aviator, Gabriele
d'Annunzio, has described in his novel, _Forse che si forse che no_, the
friendship of two young men, Paolo Tarsis and Giulio Cambasio, whose
mutual affection, arising from a similar longing to conquer the sky, has
grown in the perils they dare together. If this book had been written
later, war would have intensified its meaning. Instead of dying in a
fight, Cambasio is killed in a contest for altitude between Bergamo and
the Lake of Garda. As Achilles watched beside the dead body of
Patroclus, so Tarsis would not leave to another the guarding of his lost
friend:
"In tearless grief Paolo Tarsis kept vigil through the short summer
night. So it had broken asunder the richest bough on the tree of his
life; the most generous part of himself ruined. For him the beauty of
war had diminished, now that he was no longer to see, burning in those
dead eyes, the fervor of effort, the security of confidence, the
rapidity of resolution. He was no longer to taste the two purest joys of
a manly heart: steadiness of eye in attack, and the pride of watching
over a beloved peer.
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