On this Sunday, March 20, the eighth day of the "Springtime of the Poets", we share "Springtime in Wartime" by American poet Sara Teasdale, who denounces the incongruity of the resumption of killing during the earth's season of growth and rebirth.

 

SPRING IN WAR-TIME

I feel the spring far off, far off,

The faint, far scent of bud and leaf—

Oh, how can spring take heart to come

To a world in grief,

Deep grief?
 

The sun turns north, the days grow long,

Later the evening star grows bright—

How can the daylight linger on

For men to fight,

Still fight?

The grass is waking in the ground,

Soon it will rise and blow in waves—

How can it have the heart to sway

Over the graves,

New graves?

Under the boughs where lovers walked

The apple-blooms will shed their breath—

But what of all the lovers now

Parted by Death,

Grey Death?

Sara TEASDALE.