"The Peace Advocate" by H.P. Lovecraft

2 years ago
3

(Supposed to be a "pome," but cast strictly in modern metre.)

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This poem, written in 1917, is clearly another one meant to shame the anti-war crowd.

The picture used is "The Belligerent Peace Advocate", by cartoonist Clifford Berryman, which appeared in the Washington Evening Star on August 9, 1914, showing Andrew Carnegie, a strong peace advocate, as he watches the British Navy prepare for war.

To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/p100.aspx

There's apparently an epilogue that does not appear in my copy of the poem I did my reading from, but is present in the link above, and I include here for completeness:

The rev'rend parson, wak'd to man's estate,
Laments his wife's and daughter's common fate.
His martial son in warm embrace enfolds,
And clings the tighter to the child he holds.
His peaceful notions, banish'd in an hour,
Will nevermore his wit or sense devour;
But steep'd in truth, 'tis now his nobler plan
To cure, yet recognise, the faults of man.

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