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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
British writers on peace and war
Eliza Cook: Selections on peace and war
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Eliza Cook
From The Song of the Carrion Crow
I have seen the soldier, millions adored,
Do other than deed of the brave;
When he wore a mask as well as a sword,
And dug a midnight grave.
I have fluttered where secret work has been done.
Wrought with a trusty blade;
But what did I care, whether foul or fair,
If I shared the feast it made?
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Famine and Plague bring joy to me,
For I love the harvest they yield;
And the fairest sight I ever see
Is the crimson battle-field.
Far and wide is my charnel range,
And rich carousal I keep;
Till back I come to my gibbet home,
To be merrily rock’d to sleep.
When the world shall be spread with tombless dead,
And darkness shroud all below;
What triumph and glee to the last will be,
For the sateless Carrion Crow!
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