O earth, earth, earth! where wilt thou hide thy slain? <br />How cover up the blood thy children pour in vain? <br />The air is rank with death, and rent with shrieks and groans, <br />For still the voice of war rolls out in thunder tones. <br /> <br /> <br />O earth, earth, earth! there comes an awful day, <br />When thou and all thy works shall burn and melt away; <br />When all thy dead shall rise, and the sepulchral sea <br />Shall render up the dead that in her caverns be. <br /> <br /> <br />O earth, earth, earth! thy heart is hard and cold, <br />More cruel, cruel still when waxing dim and old; <br />'Thy voice is still for war,' and through the oceans spilt <br />Of kindred blood-thou still would'st wade to deeper depths of guilt. <br /> <br /> <br />O earth, earth, earth! let not poor Poland's name <br />In mocking sympathy be breathed for very, very shame; <br />'The boar that from the forest comes doth waste her at his pleasure,' <br />Much soulless sympathy thou giv'st and savest thy blood and treasure. <br /> <br /> <br />O earth, earth, earth! was thy maternal breast <br />E'er so outraged, so foully stained, so reft of peace and rest? <br />The children of one home, the brothers of one race, <br />Who flash their fratricidal swords before the mother's face. <br /> <br /> <br />O earth, earth, earth! hear'st thou the solemn call? <br />The voice of Him who speaks, the Father-God of all? <br />Let tyrants quail, for God is judge, and sets the prisoners free, <br />The wrath of man but works His will, earth's sovereign judge is He.<br /><br />Janet Hamilton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-mother-earth/
