Explore "Martyrs of Peace" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Fame writes ever its song and story, / For heroes of war, in letters of glory.
But where is the story and where is the song / For the heroes of peace and the martyrs of wrong?
They fight their battles in shop and mine; / They die at their posts and make no sign.
They herd like beasts in a slaughter pen; / They live like cattle and suffer like men.
Why, set by the horrors of such a life, / Like a merry-go-round seems the battle's strife,
And the open sea, and the open boat, / And the deadly cannon with bellowing throat.
Oh, what are they all, with death thrown in, / To the life that has nothing to lose or win-
The life that has nothing to hope or gain / But ill-paid labour and beds of pain?
Fame, where is your story and where is your song / For the martyrs of peace and the victims of wrong?