Lewis Morris: The evil blight of war torments the race from age to age

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

British writers on peace and war

Lewis Morris: Selections on war and peace

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Morris Lewis
From The Ode of Evil

The evil blight of war
Torments the race from age to age,
And savage lust and brutal rage
Deform this glorious heritage of earth.
We shudder and grow faint,
Knowing the dim fair dreams of seer and saint
Show thin and little worth.

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From Suffrages

But wherefore is it that such things are;
That want and famine, and blood and war
Are everywhere, and do prevail?
And wherefore is it the same monotonous tale
Is ever told by the lips of men?

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And the hospital wards are choked; and the fire and the flood
Vex men still, and the leaguered cities are red with blood.

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From Confession

What if a myriad ages still
Of wrong and pain, of waste and blood,
Confuse our thought, triumphant Good
At length, at last, our souls can fill…