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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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Florence Earle Coates
War
The serpent-horror writhing in her hair,
And crowning cruel brows bent o’er the ground
That she would crimson now from many a wound,
Medusa-like, I seem to see her there –
War! with her petrifying eyes astare –
And can no longer listen to the sound
Of song-birds in the harvest fields around;
Such prophecies do her mute lips declare.
Evils? Can any greater be than they
That troop licentious in her brutal train?
Unvindicated honour? She brings shame –
Shame more appalling than men dare to name,
Betraying them that die and them that slay,
And making of this earth a hell of pain!
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