Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AMERICA AT WAR by GERTRUDE BROWN SMITH

First Line: AMERICA, / IF THY SONS CAN GO TO WAR
Last Line: AND WAR SHALL NEVER MORE BE.
Subject(s): BATTLESHIPS; WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;
AMERICA,
If thy sons can go to war
@3Thinking@1—
If men democracy-trained can fight
And not glory in it
Or be afraid of it
But earnestly regret that war must be—
If they can follow thy banner
And know
That its red does not represent blood
But sunrise,
That its white
Is not death but deliverance,
That its stars
Are not pilots for warships
But makers of poetry—
O America,
Then shall democracy conquer
And war shall never more be.



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