Death & Dying
To His Love
From War's Embers, and Other Verses (1919)
He’s gone, and all our plans
Are useless indeed.
We’ll walk no more on Cotswold
Where the sheep feed
Quietly and take no heed.
His body that was so quick
Is not as you
Knew it, on Severn river
Under the blue
Driving our small boat through.
You would not know him now ...
But still he died
Nobly, so cover him over
With violets of pride
Purple from Severn side.
Cover him, cover him soon!
And with thick-set
Masses of memoried flowers--
Hide that red wet
Thing I must somehow forget.
Codex Note
Spoken to the sweetheart of a dead soldier: they will walk no more on Cotswold or boat on the Severn. The speaker asks that he be covered over with violets, to hide the 'red wet thing I must somehow forget'. One of Gurney's best-known poems.
Cite this poem
MLA
Gurney, Ivor. “To His Love.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/gurney/16/.
Chicago
Gurney, Ivor. “To His Love.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/gurney/16/.
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