I Saw the Vision of Armies

Joan Baez

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..