143. A Song by Charles Alexander Richmond. Clarke, George Herbert, ed. 1917. A Treasury of War Poetry

George Herbert Clarke, ed. (1873–1953). A Treasury of War Poetry. 1917.

143. A Song

By Charles Alexander Richmond


OH, red is the English rose,
And the lilies of France are pale,
And the poppies grow in the golden wheat,
For the men whose eyes are heavy with sleep,
Where the ground is red as the English rose,	5
And the lips as the lilies of France are pale,
And the ebbing pulses beat fainter and fainter and fail.

Oh, red is the English rose,
And the lilies of France are pale.
And the poppies lie in the level corn	10
For the men who sleep and never return.
But wherever they lie an English rose
So red, and a lily of France so pale,
Will grow for a love that never and never can fail.