I DIDN'T RAISE MY BOY TO BE A SOLDIER
(Al Pantadosi (m) Alfred Bryan (l) )

as recorded by Morton Harvey
January 8th 1915


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 through her tears:

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 troubles,
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 cared to call her own?
Let each mother answer in the years to be,
"Remember that my boy belongs to me!"

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 troubles,
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!".




(Transcribed by Peter Akers - January 2016)