POEM 25
Trail all your pikes. dispirit every drum,
March in slow procession from afar,
Ye silent, ye dejected men of war!
Be still hautboys, and the flute be dumb!
Display no more, in vain, the lofty banner,
For see! where on the bier before ye lies
The pale, the fall'n, th'untimely sacrifice
To your mistaken shrine, to your false idol Honour!
(This is a short excerpt from 'All is Vanity' by Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea
who lived from 1661 to 1720, and is meant to be one of the earliest published English poetesses. Her father died when she was young, specially leaving money in his will for her education. This brought fruit and she became learned in the classics and in Greek and Roman mythology.
Her marriage was obviously happy as this couplet from a verse to her husband shows.
"And to the World, by tend'rest proofs discovers
They err, who say that husbands can't be lovers.")
