The Nightingale Of Flanders

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"Le rossignol n'est pas mobilise."
--A French Soldier

THE nightingales of Flanders,
  They had not gone to war;
A soldier heard them singing
  Where they had sung before.

The earth was torn and quaking,
  The sky about to fall;
The nightingales of Flanders,
  They minded not at all.

At intervals we heard them
  Between the guns, he said,
Making a thrilling music
  Above the listening dead.

Of woodland and of orchard
  And roadside tree bereft,
The nightingales of Flanders
  Were singing "France is left!"

© Grace Hazard Conkling