Grantland Rice

Henry Grantland Rice was the most widely read American sportswriter of the early twentieth century, syndicated for decades under the column title “The Sportlight” and best remembered for christening Notre Dame’s “Four Horsemen.” He was also a working versifier: his columns carried original poems, and he published books of verse. “The Two Sides of War” is the Rice poem that circulates most widely outside the sports pages — a short, plain-spoken piece about who votes for war and who dies in it.