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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET WRITTEN IN THE FALL OF 1914: 5 by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY

First Line: I PRAY FOR PEACE; YET PEACE IS BUT A PRAYER
Last Line: SUPREME WHEN IN ALL BOSOMS HE BE HEARD.
Subject(s): PEACE; WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

I pray for peace; yet peace is but a prayer.
How many wars have been in my brief years!
All races and all faiths, both hemispheres,
My eyes have seen embattled everywhere
The wide earth through; yet do I not despair
Of peace, that slowly through far ages nears,
Though not to me the golden morn appears;
My faith is perfect in time's issue fair.

For man doth build on an eternal scale,
And his ideals are framed of hope deferred;
The millennium came not; yet Christ did not fail,
Though ever unaccomplished is His word;
Him Prince of Peace, though unenthroned, we hail,
Supreme when in all bosoms He be heard.



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