Poetical Pictures of the Great War Suitable for Recitation. First Series ... Second Series ... Third Series ... Fourth Series. By Mackenzie Bell |
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AT SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE. |
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 | Poetical Pictures of the Great War |  |
AT SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE.
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Whatever view may be taken about War, and, personally I agree with Tolstoi both as to its horror and its inherent futility, nothing but contempt ought to be felt for the smug hyprocrisy which would condemn selfless courage, even if, sometimes, mistaken. Very early in life I stayed at this most interesting spot, during what I thought, then, to be the permanent ascendency of “The Manchester School” as it was called, or “the peace-at-any-price party,” and wrote the stanzas which follow:—
When war is gone, our people say
The heroes of the war were wrong—
That they who formed our Britain's sway,
And made her Empire firm and strong,
The heroes of the war were wrong—
That they who formed our Britain's sway,
And made her Empire firm and strong,
Were callous cut-throats nothing less,
Who joyed in war for slaughter's sake;
Who yearned to banish happiness;
Who loved with blood their thirst to slake.
Who joyed in war for slaughter's sake;
Who yearned to banish happiness;
Who loved with blood their thirst to slake.
But I, with swelling heart, to-day
Land on this shore, which years ago
Saw from its crag-encircled bay
Our Nelson's only overthrow,
Land on this shore, which years ago
Saw from its crag-encircled bay
Our Nelson's only overthrow,
And ask, do those who grub and prose,
And by their lights our heroes try,
Perform their life-tasks more than those
Whose task is but “to do or die”?
And by their lights our heroes try,
Perform their life-tasks more than those
Whose task is but “to do or die”?
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