How Long?

When shall the noise of battle cease,
   With red Bellona's crimson flood ?
When shall the crystal fount of Peace
   Wash out the hideous stain of blood ?

Almost two thousand years of Christ
   Above the bleeding earth have rolled,
Still man by man is sacrificed
   As on the Moloch shrines of old!

Unnumbered temples rise to claim
   The Prince of Peace for sovereign Lord;
Yet millions in His holy name
   Baptize the murder-seeking sword.

O, shameless mockery of hell!
   To prate of peace while rending homes
Of wives and babes with shot and shell,
   That wrap in fire their temple domes!

How long, O Lord of love, how long
   Shalt Thou be served with double tongue,
And paeans of victorious wrong
   Before thy altar-fires be sung?

Ye nations, taught in Holy books
   To serve with love the Lord of lords,
Your vines demand their pruning-hooks,
   The blameless plowshares need your swords!