Ballads of Peace in War






THE PHILOSOPHERS

    The best of true philosophers
    Are the children, after all,—
    The children with laughing hearts
    And the serious field and ball:
    They have a bowl and bubbles,
    And hours where rainbows are;
    They find, if ever the sun is hid,
    In every dark a star.

    But, O, the sorry men that make
    The wise books of our day!
    They cannot smile athwart a cloud,
    When black thoughts lead astray;
    They cannot add a simple sum,
    But talk like drunken men,
    And shut their eyes to keep out God
    When spring comes in again.

    Far simpler than the Rule of Three
    Are the laws of earth and sky;
    Yet fools will muddle all true thought,
    And pride will have its cry;
    The banners with their deadly words
    Go reeling on unfurled,
    And sin and sadness march along
    To the heartbreak of the world.

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