Give Us Our Peace

Give us a peace equal to the war
Or else our souls will be unsatisfied,
And we will wonder what we have fought for
And why the many died.

Give us a peace accepting every challenge—
The challenge of the poor, the black, of all denied,
The challenge of the vast colonial world
That long has had so little justice by its side.

Give us a peace that dares us to be wise.
Give us a peace that dares us to be strong.
Give us a peace that dares us still uphold
Throughout the peace our battle against wrong.

Give us a peace that is not cheaply used,
A peace that is no clever scheme,
A people’s peace for which men can enthuse,
A peace that brings reality to our dream.

Give us a peace that will produce great schools—
As the war produced great armament,
A peace that will wipe out our slums—
As war wiped out our foes on evil bent.

Give us a peace that will enlist
A mighty army serving human kind,
Not just an army geared to kill,
But trained to help the living mind—
An army trained to shape our common good
And bring about a world of brotherhood.

—Langston Hughes
from The Chicago Defender, August 25, 1945

1. The prevailing tone of the poem is
(1) demanding (3) celebratory
(2) angry (4) proud

2. What is most likely not a purpose of the repetition
of the phrase “Give us a peace” throughout the
poem?
(1) to provide a unified structure
(2) to emphasize a central idea
(3) to solicit the people’s loyalty
(4) to introduce the poet’s requests

3. The military references throughout the poem
serve to
(1) recall the heroic cause of war
(2) stress the destructive nature of war
(3) rally the people for a new form of war
(4) warn the people of an impending war

4. The poet’s purpose in the poem can best be
described as
(1) a condemnation of war
(2) an appeal for justice
(3) an argument for colonial values
(4) a criticism of education