<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">There Are Crocuses at Nottingham</h1><p class="byline"><span class="smallcaps">Written IN The Trenches</span><br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> Flanders, spring of 1917. Authorship unknown.</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">OUT here the dogs of war run loose, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Their whipper--in is Death</p><p class="line">Across the spoilt and battered fields </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">We hear their sobbing breath.</p><p class="line">The fields where grew the living corn </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Are heavy with our dead;</p><p class="line">Yet still the fields at home are green </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And I have heard it said:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:25%">That--</p><p class="line">There are crocuses at Nottingham!</p><p class="line">Wild crocuses at Nottingham!</p><p class="line">Blue crocuses at Nottingham!</p><p class="line">Though here the grass is red.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">There are little girls at Nottingham </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Who do not dread the boche,</p><p class="line">Young girls at school at Nottingham </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">(Lord! how I need a wash!)</p><p class="line">There are little boys at Nottingham </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Who never hear a gun;</p><p class="line">There are silly fools at Nottingham </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Who think we're here for fun.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:25%">When--</p><p class="line">There are crocuses at Nottingham!</p><p class="line">Young crocus buds at Nottingham!</p><p class="line">Thousands of buds at Nottingham</p><p class="line">Ungathered by the Hun.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But here we trample down the grass</p><p class="line"> Into a purple slime;</p><p class="line">There lives no tree to give the birds</p><p class="line">House room in paring time.</p><p class="line">We live in holes, like cellar rats, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But through the noise and smell </p><p class="line">I often see those crocuses</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of which the people tell.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:25%">Why--</p><p class="line">There are crocuses at Nottingham! </p><p class="line">Bright crocuses at Nottingham! </p><p class="line">Real crocuses at Nottingham! </p><p class="line">Because we're here in Hell. </p></div></body></html> · Great War