James H. West: No More

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

American writers on peace and against war

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James H. West
No More

No more the world lifts laurel leaves to crown
The wielder of the battle axe and spear.
The trade that filled the earth with fear
And robbed the mother of her hard-won prize –
Her baby with the golden hair and eyes
Just grown to manhood, fit for fair renown –
The trade that wrecked with woe
Wide fields all billowy with ripened grain,
And turned the rivers’ healing flow
To currents red with wrathful stain –
That trade is passing from the earth.
No longer entered on with mirth,
War now is known
As thing the most obscene
‘Mong all the things terrene;
A shame to be outgrown,
Unmasked in all its evil mien;
And conquerors are but butchers whose red hands
No more triumphant wave through cheering lands,
But nerveless fall, at love’s divine commands.