Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,
Who may never return again.
Ten million mothers' hearts must break,
For the ones who died in vain.
Head bowed down in sorrow in her lonely years,
I heard a mothe rmurmur thro' her tears.
I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy.
Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother's darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,
It's time to lay the sword and gun away,
There'd be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I didn't raise my by to be a soldier.
What victory can cheer a mother's heart,
When she looks at her blighted home?
What victory can bring her back,
All she cared to call her own?
Let each mother answer in the years to be,
Remeber that my boy belongs to me!
Wade Blade
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-didn-t-raise-my-boy-to-be-a-soldier/
