Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BOIS-ETOILE, by ETHEL M. HEWITT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BOIS-ETOILE, by                    
First Line: What legend of a star that fell
Last Line: To keep dead springtides' trysts with her!)
Subject(s): World War I; First World War


WHAT legend of a star that fell
In falchion flight from heavenly flame
Brought to some poet-peasant's mind
The haunting sweetness of thy name?

War marked thee in thy sylvan sleep—
A spoil too pure for Hell to spare—
Seamed earth, stark, splintered trunks, proclaim
That Bois-Étoilé once was fair.

O wrecked and ravaged Wood of Stars!
The lights that named thee have not set!
In lovelier groves than even thine
France forges victory from them yet!

O green place on a glorious earth,
Thine, too, the martyr's meed shall be;
With Rheims and Ypres, there shall be found
A space on History's page for thee.

Nor shalt thou lose thine olden trick—
The winds of Peace thy leaves shall stir;
(Unbudded Aprils yearn, adream,
To keep dead springtides' trysts with her!)





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