Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae, MD (1872 – 1918)

PENANCE

My lover died a century ago,
Her dear heart stricken by my sland'rous breath,
Wherefore the Gods forbade that I should know
The peace of death.

Men pass my grave, and say, "'Twere well to sleep,
Like such an one, amid the uncaring dead!"
How should they know the vigils that I keep,
The tears I shed?

Upon the grave, I count with lifeless breath,
Each night, each year, the flowers that bloom and die,
Deeming the leaves, that fall to dreamless death,
More blest than I.

'Twas just last year -- I heard two lovers pass
So near, I caught the tender words he said:
To-night the rain-drenched breezes sway the grass
Above his head.

That night full envious of his life was I,
That youth and love should stand at his behest;
To-night, I envy him, that he should lie
At utter rest.

UK Buyers Purchase the Book In Flanders Fields and Other Poems (Paperback) by John McCrae (Author) Paperback: 108 pages Publisher: Dodo Press (June 30, 2005) Language: English ISBN-10: 1905432283 ISBN-13: 978-1905432288 Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches US Buyers

Other War Poets

John Mcrae		Wilfred Owen		Edward Thomas		Herbert Read		Isaac Rosenberg
William Hodgson		Siegfried Sassoon		Rupert Brooke		Alan Seeger		Charles Sorley