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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
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Julius Myron Alexander
The Flag of Peace
0 Nations of Earth! Make a banner of Peace,
An emblem to wave when carnage shall cease,
From ocean to ocean forever unfurled,
A love-gift of Heaven illuming the world;
Not for glory of gold, for nations or cast,
But to float o’er all people in Peace at last.
Peace to the land now red from the battle.
Peace to the cannon and canister’s rattle. I
Furled be the flag of the conflict on ocean,
Stilled be the waters from wars bloody potion;
As quiet of eve, when the sun falls asleep,
A soft song of peace o’er the land and the deep.
In the flag we exalt, weave threads of love,
As pure deep and true as the heavens above;
Let every fold that the winds may lift,
Proclaim the sweet, wonderful, world-wide gift;
By the breezes kissed, let it ever wave
As Life new-born, to the Free and the Slave.
Over North and South, over East and West,
Over valley and plain and mountain’s white crest,
Where great cities lie, a tumult of toil,
Where laborers barrow the sodden soil,
Float there the Flag, ’tis the Century’s right,
The breaking of day from the shades of night.
This be the waiting, the long years’ reward,
Prayers that are answered for those ’neath the sward;
Tho’ folded in death be the warrior’s hands,
Victory theirs in the Peace of the lands;
The sorrows of Mothers, the flaming of Mars,
Quenched in the light of the rising stars.
O Nations of Earth! Make a Flag of forgiving,
Make a Flag of glory in loving and living;
Crush not our hearts with burdens of sorrow,
End the brief day with a Peace for the marrow.
A Peace to the land now red from the battle,
A Peace to the cannon and canister’s rattle.
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