Poems (Kennedy)/War Babies
"WAR BABIES"
"WAR babies"—term so pitiful
It fills the eyes with sting of tears;
Not all the accusing epithets
Of time we call the Christian years
Seems half so sorrowful.
It fills the eyes with sting of tears;
Not all the accusing epithets
Of time we call the Christian years
Seems half so sorrowful.
And yet—it is their rightful name,
Though not because Mars held his shield
And 'neath its shadow they were sired
'Mid all the din of tented field
And heart-break of the strife.
Though not because Mars held his shield
And 'neath its shadow they were sired
'Mid all the din of tented field
And heart-break of the strife.
Not this the reason, no. But, ah!
More sad than this a hundred fold—
"War babies," since the ones who gave them life,
The men and women who should hold
To God's clear-written law
More sad than this a hundred fold—
"War babies," since the ones who gave them life,
The men and women who should hold
To God's clear-written law
Made war on righteousness, and beat
Down in the dust the law divine
Of wedlock first, and in its stead
Set up the pagan-passion sign
Of free love and its bitter fruit.
Down in the dust the law divine
Of wedlock first, and in its stead
Set up the pagan-passion sign
Of free love and its bitter fruit.
"War babies"—"Thousands of them?"
Not once has time's long record shown
Wholesale arraignment such as this
Of womanhood; nor has been known
Such breakdown of morality.
Not once has time's long record shown
Wholesale arraignment such as this
Of womanhood; nor has been known
Such breakdown of morality.
"War babies?" Yea; but war against
Those high decrees of truth and right
That hold the world at even poise—base war
In which there was no spirit fight
Against the hosts of hell.
Those high decrees of truth and right
That hold the world at even poise—base war
In which there was no spirit fight
Against the hosts of hell.