I Saw the Vision of Armies

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 all in silence), 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...