War is the mistress of enormity,
Mother of mischief, monster of deformity;
Laws, manners, arts she breaks, she mars, she chases,
Blood, tears, bowers, towers, she spills, smites, burns, and razes.
Her brazen teeth shake all the earth asunder;
Her mouth a firebrand, and her voice a thunder,
Her looks are lightning, every glance a flash,
Her fingers guns that all to powder smash;
Fear and despair, flight and disorder,
post
With hasty march before her murderous host.
As burning waste, rape, wrong, impiety,
Rage, ruin, discord, horror, cruelty,
Sack, sacrilege, impunity and pride are still stern consorts by her
barbarous side;
And poverty, sorrow, and desolation
Follow her armies’ bloody transmigration.[1]
Joshua Sylvester (1563-1618)
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