Eliza Cook: Not where bullet, sword, and shield lie strown with the gory slain

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

British writers on peace and war

Women writers on peace and war

Eliza Cook: Selections on peace and war

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Eliza Cook
From Harvest Song

I love, I love to see
Bright steel gleam through the land;
‘Tis a goodly sight, but it must be
In the reaper’s tawny hand.
The helmet and the spear
Are twined with laurel wreath;
But the trophy is wet with the orphan’s tear,
And blood-spots rest beneath.
I love to see the field
That is moist with purple stain;
But not where bullet, sword, and shield,
Lie strown with the gory slain.

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The feast that warfare gives
Is not for one alone –
‘Tis shared by the meanest slave that lives,
And the tenant of a throne.

Then glory to the steel
That shines in the reaper’s hand;
And thanks to God, who has blessed the sod,
And crowns the harvest land