Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A SKYLARK BEHIND OUR TRENCHES, by EDWARD DE STEIN First Line: Thou little voice! Thou happy sprite Last Line: We live. Subject(s): Soldiers' Writings; World War I; First World War | ||||||||
THOU little voice! Thou happy sprite, How didst thou gain the air and light That sing'st so merrily? How could such little wings Give thee thy freedom from these dense And fetid tombsthese burrows whence We peer like frightened things? In the free sky Thou sail'st while here we crawl and creep And fight and sleep And die. How canst thou sing while Nature lies Bleeding and torn beneath thine eyes, And the foul breath Of rank decay hangs like a shroud Over the fields the shell hath ploughed? How canst thou sing, so gay and glad, Whilst all the heavens are filled with death And all the world is mad? Yet sing! For at thy song The tall trees stand up straight and strong And stretch their twisted arms. And smoke ascends from pleasant farms And the shy flowers their odours give. Once more the riven pastures smile, And for a while We live. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY 1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |
|