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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 The Rag-Bag
“Your dazzling coach that rattles through the mart,
Is far less useful than the farmer’s cart;
While the brave whittle, dangling by your side,
The gay appendage of your feudal pride,
Rusts in the scabbard, – see! the peasant blithe
Sweeps down whole fields with his broad sword, the scythe.
Leads harvest captive to his stores for food,
And while he conquers famine, sheds no blood;
The barn’s his palace, and the plough’s his throne,
The flail’s his sceptre, and true worth’s his crown.”
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