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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BATTLEFIELDS, by PERCY MACKAYE Poet's Biography
First Line: On the battlefields of birth
Last Line: Mothers, maddened mothers, curse you, germany!
Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace
Subject(s): Death; Germany; Soldiers; War; Dead, The; Germans
First Line: On the battlefields of birth
Last Line: Mothers, maddened mothers, curse you, germany!
Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace
Subject(s): Death; Germany; Soldiers; War; Dead, The; Germans
ON the battlefields of birth,
Lulled from pain in twilight sleep,
Languorous in calm reliance
On the Christ-like soul of science,
They whose patient soldiership
Bore the age-old pangs of earth
Till the patient seers of reason set them free —
Volunteers, whose valiant warring
Is the passion of restoring —
Mothers, gentle mothers, bless you, Germany!
By the battlefields of death,
Racked by prayers that never sleep,
Anguished with a wild defiance
Of the Satan powers of science,
They whose loving guardianship
Knit the subtle bonds of breath
Till their sons of iron tore them ruthlessly —
Victims, whose heart-blinding portion
Is their victory's abortion —
Mothers, maddened mothers, curse you, Germany!
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