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..