Victor Hugo: I prefer poet to marshals’ cannonade

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

French writers on war and peace

Victor Hugo: Selections on war

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Victor Hugo
From Imperial Revels
Translated by H.L.W.

Ye troopers who shot mothers down,
And marshals whose brave cannonade
Broke infant arms and split the stone
Where slumbered age and guileless maid –
Though blood is in the cup you fill,
Pretend it “rosy” wine, and still
Hail Cannon “King!” and Steel the “Queen!”
But I prefer to sup
From Philip Sidney‘s cup –
True soldier’s draught serene.