Stephen Crane: There Was a Crimson Clash of War

           
                                                  
                                        XIV

There was a crimson clash of war.

Lands turned black and bare;

Women wept;

Babes ran, wondering.

There came one who understood not these 

          things.

He said, "Why is this?"

Whereupon a million strove to answer

          him.

There was such intricate clamour of 

          tongues,

That still the reason was not.

                                     
                                             --Stephen Crane, from Black Riders and Other Lines