Sunday WW1 Poet...

The theme for this month's WW1 poems 

is 


Literary Figures 


Those poets who are perhaps better known for their stories



Edith Nesbit

 1838 - 1924


The Fields Of Flanders

Last year the fields were all glad and gay
With silver daisies and silver may;
There were kingcups gold by the river's edge
And primrose stars under every hedge.

This year the fields are trampled and brown,
The hedges are broken and beaten down,
And where the primroses used to grow
Are little black crosses set in a row.

And the flower of hopes, and the flowers of dreams,
The noble, fruitful, beautiful schemes,
The tree of life with its fruit and bud,
Are trampled down in the mud and the blood.

The changing seasons will bring again
The magic of Spring to our wood and plain:
Though the Spring be so green as never was seen
The crosses will still be black in the green.

The God of battles shall judge the foe
Who trampled our country and laid her low . . .
God! hold our hands on the reckoning day,
Lest all we owe them we should repay.

Written in 1915

Edith Nesbit was an English author and poet. She wrote many novels for children and adults but perhaps she is best known for; Five Children and It (1902), and The Railway Children (1906)

Nesbit lived a colourful and active life while writing her poems, plays, short stories, fiction and non-fiction. With elements of fantasy, time travel and spies, fairy tales and magic, her children's stories are a reflection of her idyllic childhood days and travels through England, France, and Germany. 

~***~ 

Sunday War Poet..

The theme for this month's WW1 war poems

is

 LOVE

Under the Shadow

Edith Nesbit

1858 - 1924

Under the shadow of a hawthorn brake,
Where bluebells draw the sky down to the wood,
Where, 'mid brown leaves, the primroses awake
And hidden violets smell of solitude;
Beneath green leaves bright-fluttered by the wing
Of fleeting, beautiful, immortal Spring,
I should have said, 'I love you,' and your eyes
Have said, 'I, too . . . ' The gods saw otherwise.

For this is winter, and the London streets
Are full of soldiers from that far, fierce fray
Where life knows death, and where poor glory meets
Full-face with shame, and weeps and turns away.
And in the broken, trampled foreign wood
Is horror, and the terrible scent of blood,
And love shines tremulous, like a drowning star,
Under the shadow of the wings of war.

First Published December ,1915

Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a precursor to the modern Labour Party.