Surely Not At All Poem by Francis Duggan

Great people in their prime of life and of old age have died
And great people have even committed suicide
And the lives of great people we do celebrate
But what is the difference between good and great
The winners write the war history of the winners what does this say
That the winners are great no 'tis not always this way
Some victorious war leaders are or were the worst of bad kind
And worse mass killers than them would be impossible to find
Some of them as heroes did live and some of them as heroes did die
But that they were great people and heroes is a damnable lie
They ordered the execution of millions of people nothing honourable about that
They showed as little sympathy to their victims a shown to a mouse by a cat
The war winners write the war history that much we do recall
But are all war winners great surely not at all.