Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe
(A Mother’s Day For Peace)
by Scott Ainslie, Si Kahn & Tom Chapin
© Cattail Music, Joe Hill Music & The Last Music Co. (ASCAP)

She wrote
“the bitter vintage of the grapes of wrath”
She coined
“the lightning's terrible swift sword”
Her name was Julia Ward Howe
And the battle hymn she wrote
Once helped our sons to fight the Civil War

These fighting words that flowed out
So swiftly from her pen
Went to the waiting watch fires of Bull Run
From Shiloh to the Wilderness
To the fields of Gettysburg
In every Union camp her song was sung
But she looked back in sorrow
And wished she'd found
These words before
May every hymn of battle
Become a prayer for peace
That never sends another soul to war

She had seen too much of killing
And the toll that war exacts
And seeking ways to make the carnage cease
Julia called to every woman
Across this war-torn earth
To gather for a Mother's Day for Peace

Arise with me, arise
All women who have hearts
Our losses age us far beyond our years
We can no longer justify
The cannons' fearsome roar
Nor use our nation's flag to dry our tears
Let us look toward tomorrow
And work together shore to shore
'Til every hymn of battle
Becomes a prayer for peace
That never sends another soul to war

For 30 years brave mothers met
Together every June
'Til Woodrow Wilson named a holiday
That turned this great assembly
Of women against war
Into a card and candy, chocolate-filled cliché

But if we love our Mothers,
And of course we do,
When we celebrate them every month of May
Remember Julia Ward Howe
And the dream she dreamed
That Mother's Day might make war go away
That Mother's Day might make war go away

(Sung to The Battle Hymn Of The Republic)
Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of what this world could be
When the sacred goal we're striving for
Transfigures you and me
When the work that women do for peace
Shall make all people free
As we go marching on
Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah.
Glory, glory, hallelujah. As we go marching on.

This song appears on Tom Chapin's Threads CD.

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