In the Times of Tuesday Cora Lady Strafford, herself an
American by birth, contrasts the spirit of "I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier" with that of Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic "—perhaps the finest of all the American war songs :— "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord ; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored : He bath loosed the fatal lightning of His terrible swift sword ; His Truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps ; I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps ; His Day is marching on." Mrs. Howe's poem, it may be remembered, was written during • a sleepless night after seeing the watch-fires of the Army of the Potomac from the summit of the Capitol at Washington. It is only fair to the author of" I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier" to state that he has now disclaimed, the paoificist interpretation placed upon the verses, which he declares to be a protest against German Ku/tur and Kaiserism.
Previous page
