Henry Vaughan: Let us ‘midst noise and war of peace and mirth discuss

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

British writers on peace and war

Henry Vaughan: The Men of War

Henry Vaughan: Strife and war are the sword’s prize

Henry Vaughan: What thunders shall those men arraign who cannot count those they have slain?

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Henry Vaughan
From To his retired friend, An Invitation to Brecknock

Come then! and while the slow icicle hangs
At the stiff thatch, and Winter’s frosty pangs
Benumb the year, blithe — as of old — let us
‘Midst noise and war of peace and mirth discuss.
This portion thou wert born for: why should we
Vex at the time’s ridiculous misery?
An age that thus hath fool’d itself, and will
— Spite of thy teeth and mine — persist so still.