Katharine Lee Bates: Mother

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

American writers on peace and against war

Women writers on peace and war

Katharine Lee Bates: Selections on war and peace

====

Katharine Lee Bates
Mother

“Mother! Mother!” he called as he fell
In the horror there
Of a bursting shell
That strewed red flesh on the air.

Far away over sea and land:
The knitting dropt
From an old white hand,
And a heart for an instant stopt.

But it was Death, dark mother and wise,
All-tenderest,
Who kissed his eyes
And gathered him to her breast.