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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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Caroline Atherton Mason
Reconciliation
If thou wert lying, cold and still and white,
In death’s embraces, O mine enemy!
I think that if I came and looked on thee
I should forgive; that something in the sight
Of thy still face would conquer me, by right
Of death’s sad impotence, and I should see
How pitiful a thing it is to be
At feud with aught that’s mortal.
So, to-night,
My soul, unfurling her white flag of peace, –
Forestalling that dread hour when we may meet,
The dead face and the living, – fain would cry
Across the years, “Oh, let our warfare cease!
Life is so short, and hatred is not sweet;
Let there be peace between us ere we die.”
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