Gilbert Waterhouse: “This is the last of wars – this is the last!”

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

British writers on peace and war

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Gilbert Waterhouse
“This is the Last”

Coming in splendor thro’ the golden gate
Of all the days, swift passing, one by one,
O silent planet, thou has gazed upon
How many harvestings dispassionate?
Across the many furrowed fields of Fate,
Wrapt in the mantle of oblivion,
The old, gray, wrinkled Husbandman has gone;
The blare of trumpets, rattle of the drum,
Disturb him not at all – he sees,
Between the hedges of the centuries,
A thousand phantom armies go and come,
While reason whispers as each marches past,
“This is the last of wars – this is the last!”