Prose & Poetry - The Muse in Arms - If We Return
First published in London
in November 1917 and reprinted in February 1918 The Muse in Arms
comprised, in the words of editor E. B. Osborne:
"A collection of war poems, for the most part written in the field of action, by seamen, soldiers, and flying men who are serving, or have served, in the Great War".
Below is one of eleven poems featured within The Future Hope section of the collection. You can access other poems within the section via the sidebar to the right.
If We Return
by F.W. Harvey
If we return, will England
be
Just England still to you and me?
The place where we must earn our bread?
We who have walked among the dead,
And watched the smile of agony,
And seen the price of Liberty,
Which we had taken carelessly
From other hands. Nay, we shall dread,
If we return,
Dread lest we hold blood-guiltily
The things that men have died to free.
Oh, English fields shall blossom red
For all the blood that has been shed
By men whose guardians are we,
If we return.
"ANZAC" was coined in 1915 from the initials of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
- Did you know?
