Category Archives: sonnets

Ferdinand Buisson was the oldest to take the prize, by chance, Achieving it for his history of tireless efforts to bring Peace and right settlements between Germany and France. He was influenced early by Kant, that reason was the thing To decide what was best, based on universal principles, And that peace could be broughtContinue reading “1927 – Ferdinand Edouard Buisson”

Stresemann, German, was born into a culture Convinced it was clearly superior to all others. His areas were economics, business and politics. He supported a pre-war build-up of the German war fleet, And that Germany should wage unrelenting war on its enemies, Then found himself in 1919 having to admit That a negotiated peace mightContinue reading “1926 – Gustav Stresemann”

Aristide Briand was French, a Socialist. Popular Issues were class struggle, strikes and workers’ rights. When he became Prime Minister, his karma came full circle, As he forced workers off strike, sent in military, fired many, a fright. He became PM again after the War had begun: He felt France should negotiate peace but didContinue reading “1926 – Aristide Briand”

Chamberlain was a British politician Who had studied in France and worked in India. He returned in time to be involved in Versailles, Where he worked on Germany’s reparations load. He was a League of Nations sceptic who Believed that individual nations could and should Resolve their own differences, and not hew To the ordersContinue reading “1925 – Sir Austen J. Chamberlain”

Dawes, an American, began as a fledgling lawyer Out West, defending farmers against the railroads But this career ended. Into banking he would go, And from Chicago banker, eventually to U.S. Comptroller. When the War began, he asked for a related position: By war’s end, in France, he was general of Allied supplies. When GermanyContinue reading “1925 – Charles Gates Dawes”

In Nineteen-hundred and twenty-three and four, The Nobel Peace Prize was not given as an award. The prize money went to a Special fund, allocated, To further Peace research, to perpetuate it. Meanwhile, Nansen continued refugee-processing, Shocked by the disinterest of the majority. “I see the suffering people of Europe bleeding To death on desertedContinue reading “1923 – 1924”

Everyone knew him, his travels and accomplishments. He pressed this to exceptional uses. To Denmark he went To seek a King for Norway, finally free. In Britain, he chose To speak to the Royal Geographic Society. He opposed War with Sweden, and in World War I was sent To negotiate food for Norway, a neutral,Continue reading “1922 – Fridtjof Nansen – 2”

Where to begin with this man of the century, Whose love of skiing as a Norwegian boy, he embraced, Whose talents included the sciences and zoology, Whose studies and travels, both, proved him an Ace. He skied across Norway to participate in ski ‘tricks,’ He skied across Greenland, the first to explore it so, HeContinue reading “1922 – Fridtjof Nansen”

One couldn’t be closer to the Peace prize itself, see, Than to work for the Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway. As advisor and secretary, he built its research library, And embraced Peace work enthusiastically. This led to his selection as Secretary-General Of the Inter-Parliamentary Bureau in Brussels, Belgium. There, he successfully built this international “Union”Continue reading “1921 – Christian Lous Lange”

Karl Branting of Sweden shared the Nobel prize With Norway’s Lange, a fitting compromise. He embraced socialist ideals and strengthened Sweden’s role In suffrage, work hours and education goals. As an editor, statesman and first Socialist prime minister, He worked always to embrace Peace and reason. In 1905 when Norway left Sweden, he deterred ThoseContinue reading “1921 – Karl Hjalmar Branting”