“Peace – November 11, 1918”

I stood in the flag-decked cheering crowd
Where all but I were gay,
And gazing on their ecstasy,
My heart shrank in dismay.

For theirs was the joy of the ‘little folk’
The cruel glee of the weak,
Who, banded together, have slain the strong
Which none alone dared seek.

The Bosch we know was a hideous beast
Beyond our era’s ban,
But soldiers still must honor the Hun
As a mighty fighting man.

The vice he had was strong and real,
Of virtue he had none,
Yet he fought the world remorselessly
And very nearly won.

While the conquerors here – this cheering mob
With obscene mind and soul
Who look but on peace as a means to glut
Their life’s one sensuous goal.

And looking forward I could see
Life like a festering sewer;
Full of the fecal Pacifists
Which peace makes us endure.

I saw ’round placid hearths of home,
Sleek virtues soft and cheap
Which neither make the soul to soar
Nor cause the heart to leap.

The bootless, cramping little lusts,
The vices mean and small,
Vile sourings of avarice,
Weak lusts by fears held thrall.

None of the bold and blatant sin
The disregard of pain,
The glorious deeds of sacrifice
Which follow in war’s train.

Instead of these the little lives
Will blossom as before,
Pale bloom of creatures all too weak
To bear the light of war.

While we whose spirits’ wider range
Can grasp the joys of strife,
Will moulder in the virtuous vice
Of futile peaceful life.

We can but hope that e’re we drown
‘Neath treacle floods of grace,
The tuneless horns of mighty Mars
Once more shall rouse the Race.

When such times come, Oh! God of War
Grant that we pass midst strife,
Knowing once more the whitehot joy
Of taking human life.

Then pass in peace, blood-glutted Bosch
And when we too shall fall,
We’ll clasp in yours our gory hands
In High Valhalla’s Hall.

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The featured image is “A Machine Gun Company of Chasseurs Alpins in the Barren Winter Landscape of the Vosges,” painting by François Flameng, painted during World War I 1914-198. This file is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.