In Flanders Fields and Other Poems/The Oldest Drama

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The Oldest Drama  (1907)  John McCrae

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University Magazine

The Oldest Drama

"It fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.  And he said unto his father, My head, my head.  And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother.  And … he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.  And she went up, and laid him on the bed.…    And shut the door upon him and went out."

Immortal story that no mother's heart    Ev'n yet can read, nor feel the biting pain That rent her soul!  Immortal not by art    Which makes a long past sorrow sting again Like grief of yesterday: but since it said    In simplest word the truth which all may see, Where any mother sobs above her dead    And plays anew the silent tragedy.