Spring In War Time

by Sara Teasdale

Spring in War Time was published in the 1917 anthology, A Treasury of War Poetry: British and American Poems of the World War 1914-1917.

An illustration for the story Spring In War Time by the author Sara Teasdale — Victoria Cross monument at Akroydon, Halifax, England

I feel the spring far off, far off,
The faint, far scent of bud and leaf,
Oh, how can spring take heart to come
To a world in grief,
Deep grief?

The sun turns north, the days grow long,
Later the evening star grows bright,
How can the daylight linger on
For men to fight,
Still fight?

The grass is waking in the ground,
Soon it will rise and blow in waves,
How can it have the heart to sway
Over the graves,
New graves?

Under the boughs where lovers walked
The apple-blooms will shed their breath,
But what of all the lovers now
Parted by Death,
Grey Death?

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