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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


1914 AND AFTER by JAMES OPPENHEIM

First Line: WOULD YOU END WAR?
Last Line: SO SURELY WILL YOUR SELFISHNESS BRING WAR.
Subject(s): PEACE; WAR;

Would you end war?
Create great Peace. ...

The Peace that demands all of a man,
His love, his life, his veriest self;
Plunge him into the smelting fires of a work that becomes his child,

Give him a hard Peace; a Peace of discipline and justice. ...
Kindle him with vision, invite him to joy and adventure;
Set him to work, not to create @3things@1
But to create @3man;@1
Yea, himself.

Go, search your heart, America ...
Turn from the machine to man,
Build, while there is yet time, a creative Peace. ...

While there is yet time! ...
For if you reject great Peace,
As surely as vile living brings disease,
So surely will your selfishness bring war.



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