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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
British writers on peace and war
Lucy Aikin: Gentle Peace with healing hand returns
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Lucy Aikin
From Necessity
The battle roars, the day is won,
Exulting Fortune crowns her son:
Sickening I turn on yonder plain
To mourn the widows and the slain;
To mourn the woes, the crimes of man,
To search in vain the eternal plan,
In outraged nature claim a part,
And ponder, desolate of heart.
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On Seeing Blenheim Castle
[Built for the Duke of Marlborough in reward for his role in the Battle of Blenheim]
O ask not me of Blenheim’s marble halls,
Her towering column and triumphal gate;
With vacant glance I viewed the trophied walls,
The wide unsocial haunt of sullen state!
Boast not to me the wooded green domain,
Formed by the labourer’s hand, the artist’s rule;
Joyless I saw, in yon extended plain,
A cultured desert and a stagnant pool.
Be mine the cheerful view of village green
With ruddy children scattered far and near,
The babbling brook thro’ willow hedgerows seen
That turns the mill with current cold and clear!
At scenes like these the feeling breast may warm,
And tears of young philanthropy may start,
The poet’s mind new dreams of beauty form,
And fancy own the promptings of the heart.
But ask not me of Blenheim’s marble halls;
Tho’ Marlborough’s triumphs grace her sculptured gate,
With careless glance I viewed her trophied walls,
Chilled by the frown of dull unsocial state.
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