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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
British writers on peace and war
Samuel Johnson: War is heaviest of national evils, a calamity in which every species of misery is involved
Samuel Johnson: War is the extremity of evil
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Samuel Johnson
From Upon the Feast of St Simon and St Jude
Of Fields with dead bestrew’d around,
And Cities smoaking on the ground
Let vulgar Poets sing,
Let them prolong their turgid lays
With some victorious Heroe’s praise
Or weep some falling King.
While I to nobler themes aspire,
To nobler subjects tune my lyre…
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From An Ode
When Pride, by guilt, to greatness climbs,
Or raging factions rush to war,
Here let me learn to shun the crimes
I can’t prevent, and will not share.
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