O look at the horses and people! <br />How they hurry and trample and fight! <br />And the smoke blowing over the steeple,-- <br />O look, how the guns shine bright! <br />See this one, this soldier, he's swinging <br />His sword over head in the air; <br />How the shot must be leaping and stinging! <br />See the men falling down everywhere! <br />Isn't this what the white folks call the war? <br />I wonder what they are doing it for. <br /> <br />And there's the big flag flying splendid, <br />White stars pretty red, pretty blue, <br />All torn. Do you think 'twill be mended, <br />And fly out again, good as new? <br />See the blue coats and gray coats, --I'm sorry <br />They bleed and they suffer and die; <br />What made all the fighting and worry? <br />Can you think of the reason why <br />They killed each other, the gray and the blue? <br />O dusky children, it was for you!<br /><br />Celia Thaxter<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/connoisseurs/
