Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THEIR VERY MEMORY by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN

Poet Analysis

First Line: HEAR, O HEAR / THEY WERE AS THE WELLING WATERS
Last Line: TEARS OF JOY AND MUSIC'S RALLY.
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

Hear, O hear,
They were as the welling waters,
Sound, swift, clear,
They were all the running waters'
Music down the greenest valley.

Might words tell
What an echo sung within me?
What proud bell
Clangs a note of what within me
Pealed to be with those enlisted?

When they smiled,
Earth's inferno changed and melted
Greenwood mild;
Every village where they halted
Shone with them through square and alley.

Now my mind
Faint and few records their showings,
Brave, strong, kind --
I'd unlock you all their doings
But the keys are lost and twisted.

This still grows,
Through my land or dull or dazzling
Their spring flows;
But to think of them's a fountain,
Tears of joy and music's rally.



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