The wounded Earth

A man walks along a damaged street in the city of Homs, January 1, 2013. REUTERS/Yazan Homsy 

 

"Enough of War the wounded Earth has known;
Weary at length, and wasted with destruction,
Sadly she rears her ruin'd Head, to shew
Her Cities humbled, and her Countries spoil'd,
And to her mighty Masters sues for Peace . . . ."

From Act Three of Nicholas Rowe's Tamerlane (1701), a once popular verse drama about – among other things – a tyrant (admittedly Turkish rather than Syrian), his downfall and the irreparable damage he does . . . .