The Death of Valentin de Boulogne

Pictures referenced: Martyrdom of St Processo and St Martiniano - Valentin de Boulogne,¹ The Martyrdom of Saint Érasme - Nicolas Poussin.²

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The facts suggest distraught and half-way mad
You dove into the fountain del Triton
Contracting blazing fever by mid-day 
And then, some night or other, died alone.

Too rough and all too northern (true to type)
You frightened off your patrons. Only when
You were discovered dead things came alive
And Valentin Boulogne was born again.

Today room XII the Vatican presents
Your Martyrdom by Poussin’s limpid twin.
His marble, stoic peace that looks to Rome,
Your splash of varnished poverty and skin.

Arranged between your darkness and his light
Are two perspectives on the willful end;
Of what permits a martyr’s sacrifice
And offers hope but does not condescend.

And then beyond the hands and feet and flesh
Lie two opposing arguments, rehearsed,
Where much like love, belief is its own end,
Old courage conjured up when at our worst.

1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Martyrdom_of_St_Processo_and_St_Martiniano%2C_by_Valentin_de_Boulogne.jpg

2. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Nicolas_Poussin_-_Le_Martyre_de_Saint_%C3%89rasme.jpg