Explore "War Mothers" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
_There is something in the sound of drum and fife_ / _That stirs all the savage instincts into life_.
IN the old times of peace we went our ways, / Through proper days / Of little joys and tasks. Lonely at times, / When from the steeple sounded wedding chimes, / Telling to all the world some maid was wife- / But taking patiently our part in life / As it was portioned us by Church and State, / Believing it our fate. / Our thoughts all chaste / Held yet a secret wish to love and mate / Ere youth and virtue should go quite to waste. / But men we criticised for lack of strength, / And kept them at arm's length. / Then the war came- / The world was all aflame! / The men we had thought dull and void of power / Were heroes in an hour. / He who had seemed a slave to petty greed / Showed masterful in that great time of need. / He who had plotted for his neighbour's pelf, / Now for his fellows offers up himself. / And we were only women, forced by war / To sacrifice the things worth living for.