Sunday War Poet....

May Wedderburn Cannan

1893 -1973

May Wedderburn Cannan was a British poet who was active in World War I.
 In 1911 she joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and trained as a nurse.
In 1918 she went to France and worked in the espionage department of the War Office in Paris.

Since They Have Died

Since they have died to give us gentleness,

And hearts kind with contentment and quiet mirth,

Let us who live also give happiness

And love, that’s born of pity, to the earth.

For, I have thought, some day they may lie sleeping

Forgetting all the weariness and pain,

And smile to think their world is in our keeping,

And laughter comes back to the earth again.

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This sad, but rather lovely poem is reminiscent of the loss of a generation of young men and on this Mothering Sunday my heart goes out to all those mothers who have lost a son or a daughter and who are coping with their own devastating loss on this special day.

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