Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A VOICE FROM FLANDERS FIELDS, by ELLA COLTER JOHNSTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A VOICE FROM FLANDERS FIELDS, by                    
First Line: We did not hate. We did not want to kill
Last Line: But will men never find peace save by dying?
Subject(s): Peace; Soldiers; War


We did not hate. We did not want to kill.
We did not want to kill -- nor yet to die.
They taught us murder much against our will.
Such ghastly murder! Can men justify
Themselves for setting us against our kind,
For throwing on the altar of their power
Our youth, our highest dreams, our lives -- to find
Only grey ashes in the final hour?
They told us we were giving to the world
Peace, and we dimly thought we understood;
Yet only we, who in war's kiln were hurled,
Discovered universal brotherhood.
We have found peace out here where we are lying;
But will men never find peace save by dying?





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