"Villanelle" by Roland Leighton
This poem was written by Roland Leighton shortly before his death in 1915 to his fiancé Vera Brittain. Violets from Plug Street Wood, Sweet I send you over sea. (It is strange they should be blue, Blue when his soaked blood was red, For they grew around his head: It is strange they should be blue.) Think what they have meant to me- Life and Hope and Love and You. (and you did not see them grow Where his mangled body lay Hiding horrors from the day; Sweetest, it was better so.) Violets from over sea, To you dear, far, forgotten land These I send in memory Knowing you'll understand. Sources ~ Oxford University: Roland Aubrey Leighton