i saw the vision of armies

Lyrics

i saw the vision of armies;, and i saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags, borne through the smoke of the battles and pierced with missiles, i saw them, and carried, hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody;, and at last but a few shreds of 'the flags left on the staffs, and the staffs all splintered and broken. i saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, and the white skeletons of young men, i saw them;, i saw the debris and debris of all dead soldiers, but i saw they were not as was thought;, they themselves were fully at rest, they suffered not;, the living remained and suffered, the mother suffered, and the wife and the child and the musing comrade suffered, and the armies that remained suffered.