Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE RED CROSS NURSE by EDITH MATILDA THOMAS

First Line: THE BATTLE-SMOKE STILL FOULED THE DAY
Last Line: A CRIMSON CROSS IS ON HER BREAST!
Subject(s): NURSES; WORLD WAR I - CASUALTIES;

THE battle-smoke still fouled the day,
With bright disaster flaming through;
Unchecked, absorbed, she held her way—
The whispering death still past her flew.

A cross of red was on her sleeve;
And here she stayed, the wound to bind,
And there, the fighting soul relieve,
That strove its Unknown Peace to find.

A cross of red ... yet one has dreamed
Of her he loved and left in tears;
But unto dying sight she seemed
A visitant from other spheres.

The whispering death—it nearer drew,
It holds her heart in strict arrest ...
And where was one, are crosses two—
A crimson cross is on her breast!



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