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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A HYMN OF LOVE AND HATE by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS

First Line: WE HATE WAR'S HORRIBLE HELL
Last Line: FOR OUR LOVE TO COME TO ITS OWN.
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

We hate war's horrible hell,
The waste and the want and the woe,
The burst of the blinding shell,
The craft of the treacherous foe.
We hate contemptible lies,
We hate the murderous hand,
The flaming fury that flies
From the heart of a desperate land.

We love the portals of peace
That open and opulent shine,
Fair plenty's happy increase,
And brotherhood all divine.
We love the bonds of the past,
The Germany undistraught,
And ever we hold us fast
To its high and heroic thought.

Our love and our hate are one,
And our hate must have its day,
Till the love that hate has undone
Shall find its ultimate way.
And only at what we hate
Is the might of our passion thrown,
And it never will be too late
For our love to come to its own.



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