Ernest Rhys: Enough of war, enough of death

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

British writers on peace and war

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Ernest Rhys
From Welsh Ballads
The Lady Elin

Sing, Speckle-breast, the spell of love!
The mountain Eagle woos the Dove:
‘Your truce be made!’ Llewelyn said:
‘To the marriage feast at Worcester ride
My mountain spears to meet my bride!’

‘Enough of war, enough of death.
The new-come spring with its wooing breath.
Stoops o’er the earth, and the birds bring mirth,
And the touch of a tender woman’s hand
Shall heal the trouble of the land.’

The squirrels in the birchwood play,
Where the trefoil bled but yesterday:
The rain has washed the red away:
And for the chiding bugle now,
The harps are achime at Aber-Fraw.