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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
British writers on peace and war
Richard Furness: Selections on war
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Richard Furness
From Midas
Midas, a Phrygian king of old,
Could by a touch turn aught to gold;
Did I possess such power, and could
Turn this or that to what I would,
Whatever monster rose to mar
The happiness of earth by war,
To stain with blood his reckless path,
To please his pride, or glut his wrath,
To raise on human woe his tyrant throne –
I’d turn that hated monster into stone.
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Peace! thou are beautiful and blest.
War! thou art horrible. The breast
That fosters not one wish of ill,
That makes the weal of man its will;
That sees itself in every face.
Makes brethren all the human race…
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