Canada, and Other Poems/War
For works with similar titles, see War.
War.
I THOUGHT of war. I saw this verdant land, Where gardens spread and wheat-fields waving lay,Flash like the fire of storms. Fair cities by the hand Of unseen monsters in an instant born Are blood-bespattered, black and torn. I choked with fumes of war, and heard all dayThe cries of dying. I dared not step lest lowMy palsied foot should crush some form below, Just dead or voiceless in its agony. The booming guns spake like the warrior breastsWith burning madness to destroy; and shellCame like their curses, scathing where they fell. The lowering heavens, yea, the farther sky, The demon with his legions there infests;The tortured air shrieks wild beneath their wings.The sea is slashed with lance and scourge and stingsOf devil-might, till nature sick with blood Shudders and bewails. War, thou blight And thing of Hell ! oh may thy wing refuseTo cast its shadow here ! Yon tidal floodIs peaceful, and the fleet that thither sails, Has happy errand; and the seas are bright With sunshine. Every year the summer-huesRefresh these peaceful hearts; but thy fell breathBrings all the awfulness of torturing death;And every sign of peace which toil doth raiseFalls like the grain before the running blaze.