ARMS AND THE MAN

The Classics! it is the Classics, & not Goths
nor Monks, that Desolate Europe with Wars.
                   --Blake


"To die for Fatherland is sweet and fitting,"
Wrote Horace, who had fled the battlefield
At Philippi, and did not mind admitting
To having, in his panic, ditched his shield.

Were his words true, expressing an emotion
Too lofty for himself, fit for the brave
Alone? Or had he mixed a heady potion
That sent doomed armies reeling to the grave?

 

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