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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A NIGHTINGALE AT FRESNOY, by JESSIE BELL RITTENHOUSE Poet's Biography
First Line: Never, they say, were guns so loud
Last Line: To sing the song of life!
Alternate Author Name(s): Scollard, Clinton, Mrs.
Subject(s): Birds; Death; Life; Nightingales; War; World War I; Dead, The; First World War
First Line: Never, they say, were guns so loud
Last Line: To sing the song of life!
Alternate Author Name(s): Scollard, Clinton, Mrs.
Subject(s): Birds; Death; Life; Nightingales; War; World War I; Dead, The; First World War
Never, they say, were guns so loud,
Never were flames so bright,
As those that made at Fresnoy
Inferno of the night;
And when the searchlight fires lit
The slender, new-green trees,
They could be seen to tremble
As never in a breeze.
At Fresnoy, in the little wood
Just greening with the spring,
A nightingale, undaunted,
Lifted his voice to sing;
And in each moment's silence
When torn earth held her breath,
Before the fearful guns again
Uttered their Song of Death,—
The nightingale, oblivious
Of all the ghastly strife,
Was heard within the little wood
To sing the Song of Life!
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