The Great War ends

November 11th: that day
Everywhere, men stopped to pray;
The time had come to end a war
Like mankind never fought before.


The moment came: the guns went still.
Shy silence filled the fields, until
Church bells rang out in joyful peal;
The war was done. Now peace was real.


Since then, we all commemorate
That final day, that fateful date;
Four horrid years of death and gore,
Till Europe curbed the Dogs of War.

An archduke and his wife were killed,
And when their scarlet blood was spilled,
Their tragic deaths determined why
Ten million men were doomed to die.

Mankind unleashed its dogs to fight,
They savaged, raged, turned day to night;
Death sealed the fate of fine young boys,
And cast them off like broken toys.

As cannon roared that dreadful year,
And soldiers died in pain and fear,
Their leaders spread what they called "truth,"
That killed a generation's youth.

The graves are there for us to see,
As proof for all eternity;
The war was simply bloody strife,
A useless waste of human life.

What good was served for those young men?
Why kill again, and yet again?