THE NIGHTINGALES OF FLANDERS GRACE HAZARD CONKLING
Reading edition
in Everybody’s Magazine
Permission to reproduce in this book.
“Le rossignol n’est pas mobilise.”—A French Soldier
THE nightingales of Flanders, They had not gone to war; A soldier heard them singing Where they had sung before. The earth was torn and quaking, The sky about to fall; The nightingales of Flanders, They minded not at all. At intervals we heard them Between the guns, he said, Making a thrilling music Above the listening dead. Of woodland and of orchard And roadside tree bereft, The nightingales of Flanders Were singing “France is left!”