WARS AND RUMOURS, 1920

By John Collings Squire

Blood, hatred, appetite and apathy,

The sodden many and the struggling strong,

Who care not now though for another wrong

Another myriad innocents should die.

At candid savagery or oily lie

We laugh, or, turning, join the noisy throng

Which buries the dead with gluttony and song.

Suppose this very evening from on high

Broke on the world that unexampled flame

The choir-thronged sky, and Thou, descending, Lord;

What agony of horror, fear, and shame,

For those who knew and wearied of Thy word,

I dare not even think, who am confest

Idle, malignant, lustful as the rest.