John Collins: Till war becomes a crime abhorred, and earth be blessed with endless peace

====

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

American writers on peace and against war

====

John Collins
England and the Boers

A stain is on thy diadem
And on thy brow a scar,
As history tells thy deeds of crime
In peaceful Afric climes afar.

The greed of gold and foreign lands
May soon allure thee to thy fate,
Till coming years forewarn thy doom,
And leave thee sad and desolate.

The brand of infamy attends
Contention with a weaker foe, –
And nations stand in mute suspense,
Or watch, in fear, the final blow.

What can restore thy tarnished name
Dipped in a murdered nation’s gore?
Who thy supremacy proclaim,
Save only in unrighteous war?

Distrust and hatred of a race
Subjected to unwise control,
Thy bloody triumph shall disgrace,
Long as successive ages roll.

No longer boast thy Christian power
O’er nations underneath thy sway,
Nor send thy sons, as heretofore,
To teach idolaters to pray.

Return, O England! to the Lord,
Whose word was never yet in vain,
“The people that uplift the sword
Shall perish on the battle-plain.”

Return! ere yet it be too late,
While mercy may avert the blow,
Or punishment thy course await,
And thou almighty vengeance know.

Rise in thy might, and bid the sword
Forever sheathed, defiance cease,
Till war becomes a crime abhorred,
And earth be blessed with endless peace.