Ten million soldiers to the war have gone
Who may never return again;
Ten million mothers' hearts must break
For the ones who died in vain--
Head bowed down in sorrow, in her lonely years,
I heard a mother murmur thro' her tears:

Chorus
"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy.
Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother's darling boy?"
Let nations arbitrate their future trouble,
It's time to lay the sword and gun away.
There'd be no war today
If mothers all would say,
"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier."

What victory can cheer a mother's heart,
When she looks at her blighted home?
What victory can bring her back
All she cares to call her own?
Let each mother's answer in the years to be,
"Remember that my boy belongs to me."
Chorus