Joan Baez — I Saw the Vision of Armies

I saw the vision of armies; And I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags, borne through the smoke of the battles and pierced with missiles, I saw them, and carried, hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody; And at last but a few shreds of 'the flags left on the staffs, (and all in silence), and the staffs all splintered and broken I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, and the white skeletons of young men, I saw them; I saw the debris and debris of all dead soldiers, But I saw they were not as was thought; They themselves were fully at rest, they suffered not; The living remained and suffered, the mother suffered, and the wife and the child and the musing comrade suffered, and the armies that remained suffered...