Sunday 4 June 2017

Sunday WW1 Remembered...





 I have been commemorating, in my own small way, the events that happened over one hundred years ago during the dark days of the First World War.



Revision

by 

Eileen Newton


In those two silent moments, when we stand
To let the surging tide of memory fill
The mind’s deep caverns with its mingled flood
Of joys and griefs, I shall not think again,
As I was wont, of the untimely slain,
Of poppies dipped and dyed in human blood,
Of the rude cross upon the ravaged hill,
And all the strife which scarred that lovely land.

My thoughts shall seek, instead, a hallowed place –
The little, leafy wood where you and I
Spent the last hour together, while the breeze
Lulled every nodding daffodil to rest;
And from the flaming ramparts of the west
Shone bars of gold between black stems of trees,
Till dusk crept softly down the April sky,
And Hesperus trembled in the sapphire space.

Remembering this, in my heart, at length set free
From gyves of hate, its bitter passion shed,
May hear once more the low, caressing call
That so entranced it, seven sad years ago.
Then, in those poignant moments, I shall know
That pain and parting matter not at all,
Because your soul, long-risen from the dead,
Is crowned by love’s immortal constancy.



There is virtually no information available about Eileen Newton, or her poem Revision but the emotion expressed, in this poem of remembrance, published in 1927, is starkly beautiful.


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