Bodies of comrade soldiers gleaming white <br />Within the mill-pool where you float and dive <br /> <br />And lounge around part-clothed or naked quite; <br />Beautiful shining forms of men alive, <br />O living lutes stringed with the senses five <br /> <br />For Love's sweet fingers; seeing Fate afar, <br />My very soul with Death for you must strive; <br /> <br />Because of you I loathe the name of War. <br /> <br />But O you piteous corpses yellow-black, <br /> <br />Rotting unburied in the sunbeam's light, <br />With teeth laid bare by yellow Hps curled back <br /> <br />Most hideously; whose tortured souls took <br />flight <br /> <br />Leaving your limbs, all mangled by the fight, <br />In attitudes of horror fouler far <br /> <br />Than dreams which haunt a devil's brain at <br />night; <br />Because of you I loathe the name of War. <br /> <br />Mothers and maids who loved you, and the wives <br />Bereft of your sweet presences; yea, all <br /> <br />Who knew you beautiful; and those small lives <br />Made of that knowledge; O, and you who call <br /> <br /> <br />For life (but vainly now) from that dark hall <br />Where wait the Unborn, and the loves which are <br /> <br />In future generations to befall; <br />Because of you I loathe the name of War, <br /> <br />l'envoi <br /> <br />Prince Jesu, hanging stark upon a tree <br /> <br />Crucified as the malefactors are <br />That man and man henceforth should brothers be; <br /> <br />Because of you I loathe the name of War.<br /><br />Frederick William (FW) Harvey<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ballade-5/
