Sunday, November 11, 2018

"On Receiving the First News of the War" by Isaac Rosenberg

Image result for ww1 trenches in winter

Snow is a strange white word;
No ice or frost 
Has asked of bud or bird 
For Winter’s cost.

Yet ice and frost and snow
From earth to sky 
This Summer land doth know;
No man knows why.

In all men’s hearts it is:
Some spirit old 
Hath turned with malign kiss
Our lives to mould.

Red fangs have torn His face,
God’s blood is shed: 
He mourns from His lone place 
His children dead.

O ancient crimson curse!
Corrode, consume; 
Give back this universe
Its pristine bloom.

Rosenberg is considered one of England's foremost "trench poets."
This poem was published posthumously in 1922.
Rosenberg was killed in battle on April 1, 1918.

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