English poem
The Spring Of The Year
by Abbie Farwell Brown (1871–1927)
On fields of France the violets are fair, The skylarks sing above the broad champaign; But where are they who walked and listened there, The hero-lads our spring finds not again? They leave to us who did not share the fight, The earth’s expectancy of green delight.
Nay! They have journeyed to a sweeter bourne, Where ghosts of all the garnered springs survive, With all earth-joys that never will return, And all the flowers that ever were alive; Where bird-songs that have echoed through the years Make harmony too sweet for mortal ears.
Oh, what a radiant company are they! Forever one with all that’s newly fair; Out of the heat and burden of the day, The blight of fall and winter’s aged care. They are Youth’s Gladness, ever blossoming Beyond the wistful limit of our spring!