by Edward Wyndham Tennant (1897 - 1916)
Green gardens in Laventie!
Language: English
Green gardens in Laventie! Soldiers only know the street Where the mud is churned and splashed about By battle-wending feet; And yet beside one stricken house there is a glimpse of grass — Look for it when you pass. Beyond the church whose pitted spire Seems balanced on a strand Of swaying stone and tottering brick, Two roofless ruins stand; And here, among the wreckage, where the back-wall should have been, We found a garden green. The grass was never trodden on, The little path of gravel Was overgrown with celandine; No other folk did travel Along its weedy surface but the nimble-footed mouse, Running from house to house. So all along the tender blades Of soft and vivid grass We lay, nor heard the limber wheels That pass and ever pass In noisy continuity until their stony rattle Seems in itself a battle. At length we rose up from this ease Of tranquil happy mind, And searched the garden’s little length Some new pleasaunce to find; And there some yellow daffodils, and jasmine hanging high, Did rest the tired eye. The fairest and most fragrant Of the many sweets we found Was a little bush of Daphne flower Upon a mossy mound, And so thick were the blossoms set and so divine the scent, That we were well content. Hungry for Spring I bent my head, The perfume fanned my face, And all my soul was dancing In that lovely little place, Dancing with a measured step from wrecked and shattered towns Away … upon the Downs. I saw green banks of daffodil, Slim poplars in the breeze, Great tan-brown hares in gusty March A-courting on the leas. And meadows, with their glittering streams — and silver-scurrying dace — Home, what a perfect place!
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Clarke, George Herbert, ed. A Treasury of War Poetry, First Series. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917; New York: Bartleby.com, 2002. www.bartleby.com/266/88.html.
Authorship:
- by Edward Wyndham Tennant (1897 - 1916), "Home thoughts from Leventie", written 1916 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Humphrey Procter-Gregg (1895 - 1980), "Home thoughts in Laventie" [reciter and piano] [text not verified]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Mike Pearson
This text was added to the website: 2016-06-14
Line count: 48
Word count: 295