Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HERITAGE, by JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY


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HERITAGE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: And if that men should cease from war
Last Line: When you were born.
Alternate Author Name(s): Marks, Lionel S., Mrs.
Subject(s): Ancestry & Ancestors; Death; Mothers & Sons; Soldiers; War; Dead, The


JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY

"And if that men should cease from war,
What surety can there be
Of hardihood and sovereignty
And might, so battled for?
Whence shall a master draw his strength
And splendor, if so be, at length,
The strong man cease from war?"

Oh, he might some day light his mind
With fires that glowed when he lay blind;
The watch-fires of all motherkind—
The ardors that encompassed him
While he lay hid, unmade and dim,
Beleaguered as a bonden thrall,
With her lone body for a wall.
And she, his stronghold of a year
Against the armaments of fear,—
Her arms his wreathéd cherubim,
Fought with the hosts of hell for him,
And smiling in the eyes of Death,
Tore from her heart his gift of breath.

Yet, "Whence shall be their hardihood,
If men forbear to spill men's blood?"
From her uncounted agony
Through climbing ages all worn by,
Could he not learn the way to die,
Transfigured with some radiant Why?
From the same wells of hero-stuff,
He still might draw duress enough
To dare and suffer,—be, and build;
Till some far flaming Dream fulfilled,
Made the loud song in every vein
Sing triumph to her, for her pain;
Triumph, of one more glorious way
Than plunder for a beast of prey;
Triumph at last, against all odds
Set up by the indifferent gods!

Man-child,—the starveling without help,
Less able than a tiger's whelp,—
Housed only, once, in her embrace,
Weak bud of the destroying race!
O fool and blind, and battled for,
Whose strength is this you spill in war,
But hers?—Who laughed the stars to scorn,
When you were born.—
When you were born.





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