How the War felt from the piano stool

A sheet-music shop
was the place to be seen in.
Twenty thousand pianos
were sold each year.
All those women
writing the words
and the scores.
All those pianos selling for
three hundred dollars apiece.

Mrs S.G.Howe hummed out the
Battle Hymn of the Republic
while she was polishing her shoes.

Mrs E. Mitchell dedicated
her touching ballad
Burial at Camp
to Miss Maria Still
because she liked her name.

And Mrs Parkhurst
author of the Dying Drummer
and Art thou thinking of me in my Absence
claims she was inspired by despair.

When Mrs Sawyer
no relation to Tom
composed When this Cruel War is Over
she wondered if it would ever
be sung by men.