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Rh PACIFISTS

BY M. A. DE WOLFE HOWE

(March, 1917)

are a pacifist? So am I:

A maker of peace who would not be?

But how is it made with the maniac cry

Of war in our ears from far and nigh,

And bloodstains darkening earth and sea?

By patience, you say, by suffering long,

By trust far-reaching and calm good-will?

By closing the eyes to might-made wrong,

By yielding the weak to the maw of the strong,

And standing forever and ever still?

These should have done their work ere now—

And honor to him who held at bay

The headlong band that would not allow

Reason, with faith-illumined brow,

To seek through darkness the hidden way!

Alas! it was lost—and the wolves are loose,

Ranging the night with their fangs of blood.

Shall we stand for aye in a tacit truce

With evil, and watch while the hosts of good

Flounder and fall in the death-dyed mud?