From A Full Heart

In days of peace my fellow-men         Rightly regarded me as more like     A Bishop than a Major-Gen.,         And nothing since has made me warlike;     But when this age-long struggle ends         And I have seen the Allies dish up     The goose of Hindenburg - oh, friends!         I shall out-bish the mildest Bishop.     When the War is over and the Kaiser's out of print     I'm going to buy some tortoises and watch the beggars sprint;     When the War is over and the sword at last we sheathe     I'm going to keep a jelly-fish and listen to it breathe.     I never really longed for gore,         And any taste for red corpuscles     That lingered with me left before         The German troops had entered Brussels.     In early days the Colonel's "'Shun!"         Froze me; and as the war grew older     The noise of some one else's gun         Left me considerably colder.     When the War is over and the battle has been won     I'm going to buy a barnacle and take it for a run;     When the War is over and the German fleet we sink     I'm going to keep a silkworm's egg and listen to it think.     The Captains and the Kings depart -         It may be so, but not lieutenants;     Dawn after weary dawn I start         The never ending round of penance;     One rock amid the welter stands         On which my gaze is fixed intently:     An after-life in quiet lands         Lived very lazily and gently.     When the War is over and we've done the Belgians proud     I'm going to keep a chrysalis and read to it aloud;     When the War is over and we've finished up the show     I'm going to plant a lemon pip and listen to it grow.     Oh, I'm tired of the noise and turmoil of battle,     And I'm even upset by the lowing of cattle,     And the clang of the bluebells is death to my liver,     And the roar of the dandelion gives me a shiver,     And a glacier, in movement, is much too exciting,     And I'm nervous, when standing on one, of alighting -     Give me Peace; that is all, that is all that I seek....                         Say, starting on Saturday week.                  A. A. Milne.