And so we steeled ourselves to dread;
    To see at night his empty bed;
    To feel the silence and the gloom
    That hovers o’er his vacant room,
    And though we wept the day he went,
    And many a lonely hour we’ve spent,
    We’ve come to think as he, somehow,
    And we are more contented now;
    We’re proud that we can stand and say
    We have a boy who’s gone away. 
    And we are glad to know that he
    Is serving where he ought to be.

    It’s queer, the change that time has brought: 
    We’re different now in speech and thought;
    His letters home mean joy to us,
    His difficulties we discuss. 
    When word of his promotion came,
    His mother, with her eyes aflame
    With happiness and pride, rushed out
    To tell the neighbors round about. 
    Her boy!  Her boy is doing well! 
    What greater news can mothers tell? 
    I think that pity now we show
    For those who have no boys to go.

Mothers and Wives

Mothers and wives, ’tis the call to arms
That the bugler yonder prepares to sound;
We stand on the brink of war’s alarms
And your men may lie on a blood-stained
ground. 
The drums may play and the flags may fly,
And our boys may don the brown and blue,
And the call that summons brave men to die
Is the call for glorious women, too.

Mothers and wives, if the summons comes,
You, as ever since war has been,
Must hear with courage the rolling drums
And dry your tears when the flags are seen. 
For never has hero fought and died
Who has braver been than the mother, who
Buckled his saber at his side,
And sent him forward to dare and do.

    Mothers and wives, should the call ring out,
      It is you must answer your country’s cry;
    You must furnish brave hearts and stout
      For the firing line where the heroes die. 
    And never a corpse on the field of strife
      Should be honored more in his country’s sight
    Than the noble mother or noble wife
      Who sent him forth in the cause of right.

    Mothers and wives, ’tis the call for men
      To give their strength and to give their lives;
    But well we know, such a summons then
      Is the call for mothers and loyal wives,
    For you must give us the strength we need,
      You must give us the boys in blue,
    For never a boy or a man shall bleed
      But a mother or wife shall suffer, too.

         The Call to Service

These are the days when little thoughts
Must cease men’s minds to occupy;
The nation needs men’s larger creeds,
Big men must answer to her cry;
No longer selfish ways we tread,
The greater task lies just ahead.

These are the days when petty things
By all men must be thrust aside;
The country needs men’s finest deeds,
Awakened is the nation’s pride;
Men must forsake their selfish strife
Once more to guard their country’s life.