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OLD SOLDIER DEAD, by                    
First Line: In flanders fields, where poppies blow'
Last Line: Their own beloved country's flag.
Subject(s): World War I; First World War


"IN Flanders fields, where poppies blow,"
In france where beauteous roses glow,
There let them rest -- forever sleep,
While we eternal vigil keep
With our heart's love -- with our soul's pray'r,
For all our Fallen "Over There."

The sounding sea between us rolls
And in perpetual requiem tolls --
Three thousand miles of cheerless space
Lie 'twixt us and their resting place;
'Twas God who took them by the hand
And left them in the stranger land.

The earth is sacred where they fell --
Forever on it lies the spell
Of hero deeds in Freedom's cause,
And men unborn shall come and pause
To say a prayer, or bow the head;
So leave these graves to hold their dead.

Let not our sighing nor our tears
Fall on them through the coming years
Who on the land, on sea, in air,
With dauntless courage everywhere,
Their homes and country glorified --
Stood to their arms and smiling died.

Great France will leave no need nor room
That we place flowers on their tomb --
And proudly o'er their resting place,
Will float forever in its grace,
O'er cross, and star, and symbol tag,
Their own beloved country's flag.





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