The Nightingales of Flanders
"Le rossignol n'est pas mobilisé."
– 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!
~~
Grace Hazard Conkling (1878-1958)
from Wilderness Songs, 1920
[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]
Grace Hazard Conkling biography
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