Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TREES ON THE CALAIS ROAD by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN

Poet Analysis

First Line: LIKE MOURNERS FILING INTO CHURCH AT A FUNERAL
Last Line: OF THAT DEAD ARMY DRIVING BY.
Subject(s): TREES; WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

LIKE mourners filing into church at a funeral,
These droop their sombre heads and troop to the coast,
The untimely rain makes mystery round them all
And the wind flies round them like the ghost
That the body on the blackened trestles lost.

@3Miserere@1 sobs the weary
Sky, sackclothed, stained, and dreary,
And they bend their heads and sigh
@3Miserere, Miserere!@1

With natural dole and lamentation
They groan for the slaughter and desecration,
But every moment adds to the cry
Of that dead army driving by.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net