Explore "Of the Great White War" by Thomas Burke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
During the years when the white men fought each other, / I observed how the aged cried aloud in public places / Of honour and chivalry, and the duty of the young; / And how the young ceased doing the pleasant things of youth, / And became suddenly old, / And marched away to defend the aged.
And I observed how the aged / Became suddenly young; / And mouthed fair phrases one to the other upon the Supreme Sacrifice, / And turned to their account-books, murmuring gravely: / Business as Usual; / And brought out bottles of wine and drank the health / Of the young men they had sent out to die for them.