"Trail all your pikes..."

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Trail all your pikes, dispirit every drum,
March in a slow procession from afar,
Ye silent, ye dejected men of war!
Be still the hautboys, and the flute be dumb!
Display no more, in vain, the loftly banner.
For see! where on the bier before ye lies
The pale, the fall`n th`untimely sacrifice
To your mistaken shrine, to your false idol Honour!

© Anne Kingsmill Finch