Historic Sheet Music Collection
Document Type
Score
Publication Date
1915
Lyrics
VERSE 1
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 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.”
VERSE 2
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!
CHORUS
Recommended Citation
Piantadosi, Al and Bryan, Alfred, "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" (1915). Historic Sheet Music Collection. 1642.
https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/sheetmusic/1642
The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.
Comments
Lyrics by Alfred Bryan
Music by Al. Piantadosi
Photo of Chief Tendehoa on cover
Popular Edition Leo Feist New York
Ascherberg Hopwood & Crew, Ltd. London England
Copyright MCMSV by Leo Feist
“Some of these resources may contain offensive stereotypes. Such materials should be seen in the context of the time period and as a reflection of the attitudes of the time. The items are part of the historical record, and do not represent the views of the library or the institution.”