Katharine Lee Bates: Mother

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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
Katharine Lee Bates: Selections on war and peace
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Katharine Lee Bates
Mother
“Mother! Mother!” he called as he fell
In the horror there
Of a bursting shell
That strewed red flesh on the air.
Far away over sea and land:
The knitting dropt
From an old white hand,
And a heart for an instant stopt.
But it was Death, dark mother and wise,
All-tenderest,
Who kissed his eyes
And gathered him to her breast.

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