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6 RICHARD ALDINGTON
Where they hammer their dreams in gold and
copper, Where they cut them in pine-wood, in Parian stone,
in wax, Where they sing them in sweet bizarre words To the sound of antiquated shrill instruments ; And they are happy.
The little rock-citadel of the artists
Is always besieged ;
There, though they have beauty and silence,
They have always tears and hunger and despair.
But that little citadel has held out
Against all the wars of the world —
Like England, brother Jonathan.
It will not fall during the great war.
There is always war and always peace ;
Always the war of the crowds,
Always the great peace of the arts.
1914. — Richard Aldington.
(No. 24,965, " E" Company, llth Devons.)
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