Page:Poems, Volume 2, Coates, 1916.djvu/223



WAR against the folly that is War,

The sacrifice that pity hath not stayed,

The Great Delusion men have perished for,

The lie that hath the souls of men betrayed:

I war for justice and for human right,

Against the lawless tyranny of Might.

A monstrous cult has held the world too long:

The worship of a Moloch that hath slain

Remorselessly the young, the brave, the strong,—

Indifferent to the unmeasured pain,

The accumulated horror and despair,

That stricken Earth no longer wills to bear.

My goal is peace,—not peace at any price,

While yet ensanguined jaws of Evil yawn

Hungry and pitiless: Nay, peace were vice

Until the cruel dragon-teeth be drawn,

And the wronged victims of Oppression be

Delivered from its hateful rule, and free!