Move
him into the sun -
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of
fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and
this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will
know.
Think how it wakes the seeds, -
Woke, once, the clays of a cold
star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved - still warm
-
Too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
- O what made
fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?
(Text: Wilfread
Owen (1893-1918)