THE RETURN.
Reading edition
There has been no wheat grown in the Northern war areas of France for the last two years, but the poppies have come up just the same. The peasants believe that the scarlet flowers have sprung up where soldiers bled.
A laughing crowd akin to tears, And men are passing by, Who come from trench and battlefield Where Soldiers’ die. Deep notes of music rise and fall As men have fallen, too, When Life laugh’d low at danger-mark And Death withdrew. Across the hill the crimson glow Of day’s return is blown, And poppies nod in barren fields Where blood was sown.