I will not seek the battle-field -
The men I there should meet,
What have they done to me to make
Shedding their life-blood sweet?
It is the veriest madness man
In maddest mood can frame,
To feed the earth with human gore,
And then to call it fame.
I have been wrong'd; but were my wrong
The deadliest wrong ere done,
I would not slay my enemy,
But bid him still live on :-
And I should deem my vengeance more
Than the death-wound in strife-
What ills can death inflict like those
Heap'd on each hour of life?