On November 11, 1918 WWI officially ended and the process of bringing solders home began. A short two months later a poem was submitted to the Belleville Intelligencer that would be published on January 20, 1919 and in June of 2020 we found a piece of this 100 year old newspaper during our brewery renovations.
Today we would like to share this powerful piece of poetry as we take the time this week to remember the lives of all who have been forever changed by war.
e Poets’ corner
No flash from the rusting guns;
No rifle lights the plain;
No clotted crimson river runs
From Flanders to Lorraine;
The white year dawns above the hosts
Beyond the last red flare,
Save for ten million drifting ghosts
Who neither know nor care.
How quiet now the last trench seems
How still across the fold
Where lately throughout broken dreams,
The mighty thunder rolled;
Where through our restless, shaken sleep
We heard the big shells sing,
Or saw at dawn the long line leap
To take its final fling.
Can it be that at last the rod
Has brought its final lash?
Where no more out the bloody sod
A bayonet shall flash?
Of can some white dawn known at last
The final charge is through.
With flames of war forever past
Where life and love are due.
Can it be down the world we may
Wake up at last to know
The soft white dawn of some lost day
We dreamed of long ago
Where with the ghostly shadows blown
Soft arms once more shall hold their own.
Across the silent Night?
Today no storming vanguard leaps
To leave its share of slain;
At dawn no rolling thunder sweeps
From Flanders to Lorraine
The white year breaks against the sky
Beyond the last red flare
Save where ten million ghosts drift by
Who neither know nor care.
Special thanks to Archivist Amanda Hill at the Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County for providing us with a copy of the original page scanned from microfilm. 1919-01-20 Intell p4
Photo’s of the piece of the news paper we recovered from the floor in the brewery.
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