JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY @3"And if that men should cease from war, What surety can there be Of hardihood and sovereignty And might, so battled for? Whence shall a master draw his strength And splendor, if so be, at length, The strong man cease from war?"@1 Oh, he might some day light his mind With fires that glowed when he lay blind; The watch-fires of all motherkind— The ardors that encompassed him While he lay hid, unmade and dim, Beleaguered as a bonden thrall, With her lone body for a wall. And she, his stronghold of a year Against the armaments of fear,— Her arms his wreathéd cherubim, Fought with the hosts of hell for him, And smiling in the eyes of Death, Tore from her heart his gift of breath. @3Yet, "Whence shall be their hardihood, If men forbear to spill men's blood?"@1 From her uncounted agony Through climbing ages all worn by, Could he not learn the way to die, Transfigured with some radiant Why? From the same wells of hero-stuff, He still might draw duress enough To dare and suffer,—be, and build; Till some far flaming Dream fulfilled, Made the loud song in every vein Sing triumph to her, for her pain; Triumph, of one more glorious way Than plunder for a beast of prey; Triumph at last, against all odds Set up by the indifferent gods! Man-child,—the starveling without help, Less able than a tiger's whelp,— Housed only, once, in her embrace, Weak bud of the destroying race! O fool and blind, and battled for, Whose strength is this you spill in war, But hers?—Who laughed the stars to scorn, When you were born.— When you were born. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WILD RIDE by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY CHEERFULNESS TAUGHT BY REASON by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING KING VICTOR AND KING CHARLES; A TRAGEDY by ROBERT BROWNING THE VIRGIN MARTYR by ADA CAMBRIDGE ON THE MARRIAGE OF THOMAS KILLIGREW & CECILIA CROFTS: MORNING STORMY by THOMAS CAREW |