Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/259

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��Frank Wise

The well-known publisher, President and General Manager of The Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited Toronto, Ontario. Born in Boston, Lincolnshire, June 15th, 1868, and also educated in England. Author of The Empire Day by Day, etc.

THE TRICOLOUR

HE fields are ploughed by cannon,

Burned cottage, byre and shed, The orchards slashed in wantonness,

The snow is trampled red, But below the seeds are bursting,

And soon our eyes will greet

The bluet and the poppy and the modest marguerite.

For God hath sown the midden

Where late the gardens blew, The battle-fields, where lie our brave,

The fields and hillsides, too, And they will bloom this summer,

Despite the trampled mud,

The daisy and the bluet and the poppy red as blood.

And He will watch them tenderly,

And see they reach no harm, Those million million flow rets,

But keep them fed and warm. So when we conquer back our own,

These three we shall descry

The poppy and the daisy and the bluet like the sky.

Among our captive people,

Their faith grows with the rain, That o er the fields this summer

Their flag will float again. E en now in dreams they see it,

The Tricolour a wraith

The bluet and the poppy and the daisy like their faith.

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