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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
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W. T. Hawkins
A Song of Peace
Lord, grant us peace o’er all the world.
Let human passions rage no more,
But joy-bells ring from shore to shore,
And blood-stained battle-flags be furled.
May greed of gold and lust of power
No longer taint the nation’s life;
May bestiality and strife
Grow less and less from hour to hour.
May manhood, passionate for good,
Rise from the slough of mad desire,
And nations join in one glad choir
To sing the song of Brotherhood.
May all men cry, “Hail to the Dawn !”
And seek with Love the world to fill ;
Shaming away the coarser will
Of those who hold men’s souls in pawn.
Hail to the Dawn! Where’er the sun
Sheds warmth and light upon the earth,
May Love and Brotherhood have birth
And Peace’s victory be won.
Hail to the Dawn! Break every sword,
And let dread cannon boom no more ;
But chains of peace bind shore to shore,
And all men live in glad accord.
Then shall all fettered souls be freed,
And tyranny no more shall spoil
The first-fruits of men’s straining toil,
To satisfy unholy greed.
Hail to the Dawn! May bonfires blaze
With gladsome glow on every hill,
And He who murmured “Peace, be still!”
Give Peace on earth through endless days.
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