After (Kipling)
After the War.The snow lies thick on Valley Forge, The ice on the Delaware,But the poor dead soldiers of King George They neither know nor care—
Not though the earliest primrose break On the sunny side of the lane,And scuffling rookeries awake Their England’s spring again.
They will not stir when the drifts are gone Or the ice melts out of the bay,And the men that served with Washington Lie all as still as they.
They will not stir though the mayflower blows In the moist dark woods of pine,And every rock-strewn pasture shows Mullein and columbine.
Each for his land, in a fair fight, Encountered, strove, and died,And the kindly earth that knows no spite Covers them side by side.
She is too busy to think of war; She has all the world to make gay,And, behold, the yearly flowers are Where they were in our fathers’ day!
Golden-rod by the pasture wall When the columbine is dead,And sumach leaves that turn, in fall, Red as the blood they shed.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 88 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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