<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">From a Flemish Graveyard</h1><h1 align="center" class="head">(January, 1915)</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">A <span class="smallcaps">year</span> hence may the grass that waves</p><p class="line">O'er English men in Flemish graves,</p><p class="line">Coating this clay with green of peace</p><p class="line">And softness of a year's increase,</p><p class="line">Be kind and lithe as English grass</p><p class="line">To bend and nod as the winds pass;</p><p class="line">It was for grass on English hills</p><p class="line">These bore too soon the last of ills.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And may the wind be brisk and clean,</p><p class="line">And singing cheerfully between</p><p class="line">The bents a pleasant-burdened song</p><p class="line">To cheer these English dead along;</p><p class="line">For English songs and English winds</p><p class="line">Are they that bred these English minds.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And may the circumstantial trees</p><p class="line">Dip, for these dead ones, in the breeze,</p><p class="line">And make for them their silver play</p><p class="line">Of spangled boughs each shiny day.</p><p class="line">Thus may these look above, and see</p><p class="line">And hear the wind in grass and tree,</p><p class="line">And watch a lark in heaven stand,</p><p class="line">And think themselves in their own land.</p></div><p class="byline">-- Iolo Aneurin Williams.</p></body></html> · Great War