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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
Women writers on peace and war
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Sara Louisa Oberholtzer
The Dawn of the Centennial
The dawn of peace is breaking! breaking!
See the lights and hear the heralds of the century to be!
While the whole united people, with a bending heart and knee,
Crave the blessing of the Father, and thank Him that they are free.
The dawn of peace is breaking! breaking!
The nation unto joy is waking!
Note the throbbings of its full heart as they daily stronger grow:
Forgotten are the old discomforts, and the petty feuds I know
Vanish, as we group together of our proudest life-blood flow.
The dawn of peace is breaking! breaking!
The nation unto joy is waking!
A joy that will be pure, absorbing, untempered by the grief
That comes with victories of war, and brings of sorrow with relief.
A great outburst of gladness, a country’s fully ripened sheaf.
The dawn of peace is breaking! breaking!
The nation unto joy is waking!
Its first hundred years are passing, and to celebrate its birth
We extend free invitation all about the lovely earth,
That our friends in lavish numbers sit at our Centennial hearth.
The dawn of peace is breaking! breaking!
The dawn of peace is breaking! breaking!
See the lights and hear the heralds of the century to be!
While the whole united people, with a bending heart and knee,
Crave a blessing of the Father, and thank Him that they are free.
The dawn of peace is breaking! breaking!
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