**Repost from class blog**
From A Trench by Maud Anna Bell
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:
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 in 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.
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 the 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.
In the poem From a Trench by Maud Anna Bell, the author contrasts the despairs of the trench to the joy of the homefront. Interestingly, Bell herself never experienced trench warfare, engaged as she was with promoting war charities at home. However, when this poem was published anonymously in 1917, readers believed a soldier had written it. Imagine their surprise that a civilian, and a woman at that, could so poignantly capture the scenes and feelings experienced by those in the trenches*. Her first stanza illustrates one such scene, describing the battlefield much like poets of the time. It is a place of destruction that is “heavy with… dead.” But the following lines take a different tone, describing the crocuses, beautiful bright flowers shown below, in the town of Nottingham, a place famous for such flowers*.
The crocus itself is highly symbolic. In the spring, it is one of the first flowers to bloom and represents happiness and joy, in particular, youthful glee. They grow in three colors that are also symbolic: white for purity, purple for pride, and yellow for joy. Additionally, Greek mythology tells us that Crocus was a man in love with a woman, but their marriage was forbidden by the gods. Out of grief, Crocus killed himself, but a goddess instead transformed him into the Crocus flower and his love into a vine**. Knowing this, it seems that rather than referring to the literal flowers blooming in Nottingham, Bell is saying that despite, and maybe even because of, the horror of trench warfare, happiness and youth are still present in English cities.
In the following two stanzas, Bell describes little boys and girls attending school, children who have “never heard a gun.” At first, I read this as the author expressing her relief and even excitement that the spirit of youth symbolized by the crocus lives on, but the next line gave me pause. “There are silly fools at Nottingham/Who think we’re here for fun,” she writes. For me, this line brings out a tone of resentment in the poem, resentment that while men are dying there are people at home relishing in the war, but I think this piece is more nuanced than that and simultaneously expresses two viewpoints.
In the second to last stanza, these opposing views are even more evident. Bell returns to describing the horrors of the trench and how men live like rats, but also says “I often see those crocuses.” I interpret this line as meaning that soldiers think about the youth at home that they are fighting to protect, and these memories and ideas cut through the smelly, loud life in the trenches and bolster them to fight another day. It suggests to me that they are fighting out of love for what is behind them, remembering the youth and potential of the British children to give them much needed strength.
Like the soldiers, I think Bell expresses both resentment and relief that there is joyful youth in Britain. She recognizes sacrifice is necessary to keep the crocus alive in her country. I finally came to this conclusion after repeated readings, but what cemented this interpretation of From a Trench the most is the final stanza that says “There are crocuses at Nottingham… Because we’re here in Hell.” If the piece were meant to condemn people living happy lives at home, would she not have said “and we’re here in Hell” or “but” or “while?” Instead, she says “because,” and that makes believe that she knows the people in the trenches are in their own Hell and is grateful for their sacrifice. They are the reason crocuses continue to blossom, that youth continues to exist in Britain, even while “the dogs of war run loose.”
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