Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WAR, by CARL N. LISCHKA



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WAR, by                    
First Line: As a hurricane bellowing thunder
Last Line: For the dawn of thy smile—and peace!
Subject(s): Death; Soldiers; War - Casualties (statistics, Etc.); Dead, The


AS a hurricane bellowing thunder
And snorting fire that kills,
As host of demons careering
Madly wherever it wills;

So War, a Moloch monster,
Sweeps over hill and dale—
And mark how death and ruin
Are left in his dreadful trail.

There stately cities were standing
And peaceful hamlets lay;
Now graveyard stillnesses hover,
For War has passed that way.

The cities are roofless and empty,
The grass grows wild on the street;
The evening bell in the valley
Hangs dead o'er the trampled wheat.

The sheep have fled from the hillside,
No lonely shepherd sings,
The very birds in the woodlands
Have ceased their carolings.

Hear, God, the maimed men moaning,
See the hearts that cannot sleep,
The hearts of daughters mourning,
Of mothers and wives who weep!

Be gracious, oh Father of mercy,
Bid Thy scourges of sin to cease!
Our chastened souls are yearning
For the dawn of Thy smile—and Peace!





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