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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
British writers on peace and war
George Meredith: Selections on peace and war
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George Meredith
From The Empty Purse
Ask what crown
Comes of our tides of the blood at war,
For men to bequeath generations down!
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When our Earth we have seen, and have linked
With the home of the Spirit to whom we unfold,
Imprisoned humanity open will throw
Its fortress gates, and the rivers of gold
For the congregate friendliness flow.
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Nor History written in blood or in foam,
For vendetta of Parties in cursing accursed.
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From To the Comic Spirit
These, that would have men still of men be foes,
Eternal fox to prowl and pike to feed;
Would keep our life the whirly pool
Of turbid stuff dishonouring History…
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From Napoléon
Up withered avenues of waste-blood war,
To the pitiless red mounts of fire afume,
As ’twere the world’s arteries opened! Woe the race!
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Poured streams of Europe’s veins the flood
Full Rhine or Danube rolls off morning-tide
Through shadowed reaches into crimson-dyed:
And Rhine and Danube knew her gush of blood
Down the plucked roots the deepest in her breast.
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Philosophy is Life’s one match for Fate.
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