A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919/Peace (Warren)
For works with similar titles, see Peace.
PEACE
(November 11, 1918)
PEACE, battle-worn and starved, and gaunt and pale,
Rises like mist upon a storm-swept shore,
Rises from out the bloodstained fields and bows her head,
Blessing the passionate dead
Who gladly died that she might live for evermore.
Unheeding generations come and go,
And careless men and women will forget,
Caught in the whirling loom whose tapestried To-day
Flings Yesterday away,
And covers up the crimsoned West whose sun has set.
But faithful ghosts, like shepherds, will return
To call the flocking shades and break with them
Love-bread, and Peace will strain them to her breast, and weep,
And deathless vigil keep.
Yea, Peace, while worlds endure, will sing their requiem.