Poem - Mary Gilmore

In Hospital

By Mary Gilmore

(26 July, 1916)

Sleep and forget:

Be at peace, and rest.

The ward is white, and the day is still.

Let go the sound of the shrapnel hail;

Hear but the sound of the innocent quail,

Soft and sweet as an old refrain,

In the distant fields of France.

Sleep and forget!

Trench life is gone,

With its clime and mud, and its drenching chill.

Think only, you soldier, of fresh, green grass,

Where buttercups bend as light winds pass

There, where the world grew young again,

In the far-off fields of France.

Sleep and forget!

Be quiet and warm

The sun shines over the distant hill.

Dream-dream of a drowsy flail,  

And the far-off clack of a slow-set sail;

Dream-thou-and-forget thy pain

In the blossoming fields of France.