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Then And Now

Topics: classic

When battles were fought     With a chivalrous sense of Should and Ought,      In spirit men said,      "End we quick or dead,      Honour is some reward!     Let us fight fair - for our own best or worst;      So, Gentlemen of the Guard,      Fire first!"      In the open they stood,     Man to man in his knightlihood:      They would not deign      To profit by a stain      On the honourable rules,     Knowing that practise perfidy no man durst      Who in the heroic schools      Was nurst.      But now, behold, what     Is warfare wherein honour is not!      Rama laments      Its dead innocents:      Herod breathes: "Sly slaughter     Shall rule! Let us, by modes once called accurst,      Overhead, under water,      Stab first."     1915.

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"When battles were fought..."

Thomas Hardy's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "Then And Now"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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