Today marks the 100th anniversary of the cessation of the Great War,
which formerly ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day
of the eleventh month. November 11, 1918.
In Flanders Field Where Soldiers Sleep And Poppies Grow
(1890)
Robert Vonnoh
(1858-1933)
American Artist
I think I hear them stirring today,
Who have lain still
So long, so long, beside the Aisne and Loire,
On Verdun hill.
I think I hear them whispering, today,
The young, the brave,
The gallant and the gay-unmurmuring long,
There in the grave.
I think I hear them sighing there, today-
They sigh for all
The glory and the wonder that was life-
Beyond recall!
I think that their young eyes are wistfully
On us who go
So gayly to our sports, this holiday...
I think they know!
I think that they are listening today...
I feel them near!
Our orators declaim- they answer back,
"Why lie we here?"
Across the fleet, forgetting years it comes,
Today-their cry,
"O World, O World, if it was all in vain,
Why did we die?"
Above the earth's enduring hates, they ask,
"Was it-for this?"
I think they are remembering, this day
Of Armistice!
And oh, I think I hear them weeping there
Who should be sleeping...
A plaintive thing-to hear across the world
The young dead weeping!
"Armistice Day"
Roselle Mercier Montgomery
(1874-1933)
American poetess of Georgia
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
The Kingston Trio
(1958)
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