I have sought Happiness, but it has been 
A lovely rainbow, baffling all pursuit, 
And tasted Pleasure, but it was a fruit 
More fair of outward hue than sweet within. 
Renouncing both, a flake in the ferment 
Of battling hosts that conquer or recoil, 
There only, chastened by fatigue and toil, 
I knew what came the nearest to content. 
For there at least my troubled flesh was free 
From the gadfly Desire that plagued it so; 
Discord and Strife were what I used to know, 
Heartaches, deception, murderous jealousy; 
By War transported far from all of these, 
Amid the clash of arms I was at peace.