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Tuesday, November 11, 2003

In Remembrance...

Earlier today I posted "In Flanders Fields" in honour of Remembrance Day. Later on I came across the following poem which was inspired by, and written in response to, "In Flanders Fields." I am posting it here in the hope that it touchs you as it touchs me. The last verse, and especially the last line, is what moves me the most in this poem.

The Fields of Flanders
by Edith Nesbit

Last year the fields were all glad and gay
With silver daisies and silver may;
There were kingcups gold by the river's edge
And primrose stars under every hedge.

This year the fields are trampled and brown,
The hedges are broken and beaten down,
And where the primroses used to grow
Are little black crosses set in a row.

And the flower of hopes, and the flowers of dreams,
The noble, fruitful, beautiful schemes,
The tree of life with its fruit and bud,
Are trampled down in the mud and the blood.

The changing seasons will bring again
The magic of Spring to our wood and plain;
Though the Spring be so green as never was seen
The crosses will still be black in the green.

The God of battles shall judge the foe
Who trampled our country and laid her low. . . .
God! hold our hands on the reckoning day,
Lest all we owe them we should repay.

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