 | Youthful Verses by Francis Thompson |  |
7
WAR.
Hark, hear ye not the echoing clang of arms,The trumpet's summoning, and the drum's alarms?
So! countless squadrons crowd the glittering plain,
The exulting charger snorts, and tugs the rein,
The soaring banners flout the clouded sky,
The cannon roars, the trembling hills reply,
Thick-thronging thousands shake the gory ground,
And fallen hundreds lie in death around.
Say, whence arise these scenes of blood and woe,
From what dread source do all these evils flow?
War, only war! the cause of misery
From snow-capped Andes to the Chinese Sea;
War, only war, has been to wretched man
A baneful curse since first the world began.
Not only war is ruin to the small,
His very favourites fare the worst of all.
| Youthful Verses by Francis Thompson | |