________________________________________________
Title: Who Knows
Author: Abner Cosens [
More Titles by Cosens]
=The pessimist=
Our lot is cast in evil days
We almost lose our faith in God,
We cannot comprehend His ways,
Nor recognize His chast'ning rod.
To stem the Hun's relentless tread,
His hymns of hate, his crimes of Cain
We give our daily toll of dead,
But wonder if 'tis all in vain.
=The Optimist=
Brave men must fight, brave men must fall,
Whene'er a tyrant lifts his head;
When Freedom sounds her battle call,
We must not grudge our noble dead.
E'en now the victor's shouts we hear,
On blood bought hill, o'er shell-swept plain;
The end of tyranny is near,
Our struggle has not been in vain.
=The Socialist=
If, when our cheering shall have died,
No more for sordid grain we plan,
But shed the hoofs and horns of pride,
And strive to help our fellow man,
So each will get a fair return
For labor done by hand or brain
And none can take what others earn;
The war will not have been in vain.
=The Anarchist=
If still the selfish creed we preach
Of pleasure, ease and strife for gold;
Employer, and employee, each
Resentful, greedy, uncontrolled;
Then poor men still will curse the great,
And hellish hordes will rise again
With hungry, hardened, Hunnish hate;
This war will have been fought in vain.
[The end]
Abner Cosens's poem: Who Knows
________________________________________________
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
