Free Verse · War & Remembrance
War Is Kind
by Stephen Crane · 1899
1Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.
2Because the lover threw wild hands toward the sky
3And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
4Do not weep.
5War is kind.
6Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment,
7Little souls who thirst for fight,
8These men were born to drill and die.
9The unexplained glory flies above them,
10Great is the Battle-God, great, and his Kingdom -
11A field wher a thousand corpses lie.
12Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.
13Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches,
14Raged at his breast, gulped and died,
15Do not weep.
16War is kind.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“War Is Kind” by Stephen Crane — quilloak.com/poems/war-is-kind
Quick facts
- Poem
- War Is Kind
- Poet
- Stephen Crane
- Published
- 1899
- Length
- 26 lines
- Form
- Free Verse
- Themes
- War & Remembrance, Grief, Sad
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 26 lines · 5 stanzas of 4–6 lines
- Refrain
- “These men were born to drill and die.”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Stephen Crane1871–1900
- Source record
- PoetryDBWar Is Kind by stephen-crane, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1899
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 db40d86e33891dde…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.