OUT here the dogs of war run loose,
Their whipper-in is Death;
Across the spoilt and battered fields
We hear their sobbing breath.
The fields where grew the living corn
Are heavy with our dead;
Yet still the fields at home are green
And I have heard it said:
Their whipper-in is Death;
Across the spoilt and battered fields
We hear their sobbing breath.
The fields where grew the living corn
Are heavy with our dead;
Yet still the fields at home are green
And I have heard it said:
That—
There are crocuses at Nottingham!
Wild crocuses at Nottingham!
Blue crocuses at Nottingham!
Though here the grass is red.
There are little girls at Nottingham
Who do not dread the Boche,
Young girls at school at Nottingham
(Lord! how I need a wash!).
There are little boys at Nottingham
Who never heard a gun;
There are silly fools at Nottingham
Who think we're here for fun.
When—
There are crocuses at Nottingham!
Young crocus buds at Nottingham!
Thousands of buds at Nottingham
Ungathered by the Hun.
But here we trample down the grass
Into a purple slime;
There lives no tree to give the birds
House room in pairing-time.
We live in holes, like cellar rats,
But through the noise and smell
I often see those crocuses
Of which the people tell.
Why!
There are crocuses at Nottingham!
Bright crocuses at Nottingham!
Real crocuses at Nottingham!
Because we're here in Hell.
Maud Anna Bell
The poem uses colour to represent colour and emotion like 'the grass is red' could represent danger in war and blood. The writer may be portraying envy that back home the 'grass is green' . The writer uses repetition to convey her anger and annoyance that 'in Nottingham' people think different as opposed to those fighting .There is an influence in the poem of crocuses which could relate to a flower or the battle in crocus field ,which was the third sacred war in Greek. This could perhaps be the writer wishing the people back home troubled times or perhaps saying people back home or having troubled times too as well as the men fighting as the last line says 'Because we're here in Hell' which is a short sentence so a statement , the writer might eb saying this is hell because the people left behind may never be thought of yet they think of their loved one's everyday and their loss too.
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