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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
British writers on peace and war
Maurice Baring: Unalterable horror, misery, pain and suffering which is caused by modern war
Maurice Baring: The Wounded
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Maurice Baring
From Proserpine
The Soldier
A fig for miracles! I love a lass,
I love a fight; – a fig for foolish dreams!
The Merchant
The greater fools are you who seek the wars.
Endure the hardships of the rough champaign.
And sweat and labour, buffetted and starved.
And win but festering wounds and grisly scars
For all reward, or else untimely die,
So that an idle king may loll at case
And dwell secure in rooted indolence.
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The Soldier
We soldiers fight for glory, not for gold.
We fight because we love the clash of steel.
The shock, the charge, the bristling line of battle!
Not all the wealth of Asia buys these things.
The Merchant
Such things are sought and won by fools alone.
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