Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WORLD WAR, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WORLD WAR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This -- after nineteen centuries of christ!
Last Line: And let this worst of warfare be the last!
Subject(s): World War I; First World War


This -- after nineteen centuries of Christ!
Only the primal instincts, bad and good,
The primal heart that primal hate sufficed,
And not the hero-heart of brotherhood.

We murder men in vast and modern ways;
We cram with death the water, earth, and air;
But still we flounder in primeval haze,
And still our fort is but the caveman's lair.

We say that God is Love -- and worship Might.
We flatter Reason -- then we spit on her.
Praising the day, we turn to blackest night,
And build our highway to a sepulchre.

We prate of Law, but, lawless-hearted still,
We get our justice through the widow's moan.
We prate of Mind, and yet our vaunted will
Achieves its way by brutal force alone.

We boast of Progress: hear the orphan's cry,
The wails of mother, sister, lover, wife!
Full nineteen centuries, and still men die
In antique orgies of archaic strife.

The Better Way -- how well, how well we know --
That parts forever from the horrid past.
O brothers, join to end the ancient woe,
And let this worst of warfare be the last!





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