"CHRIST IN FLANDERS" : A TRIBUTE. [To THE EDITOR OP
111E " SPECTATOR.")
Sra,—On May 7th died at Leeds, after a long illness, most bravely and patiently borne, Mrs. Lucy Whitmell, writer of the poem,
Christ in Flanders," published anonymously in your issue of September llth, 1913. The poem, her sweet and fitting swan-song, as one friend aptly terms it, has had a truly wonderful, an almost world-wide, circulation, its simplicity and sincerity at once -winning a way to unnumbered hearts, so that it has had to he reprinted many thousands of times, besides being republished in books and magazines, and often quoted from the pulpit. Knowing that her illness, humanly speaking, was irremediable, it was a continual joy and comfort to her to realize that she had been privileged to encourage and strengthen our soldiers in the trenches, and thus take a share, however small, in helping her country in its awful trial :—
" The song that nerves a nation's heart Is in itself a deed."
Those fortunate enough to know her personally may be forgiven if the memory of her gracious presence recalls Tennyson's touch- ing tribute to his dead friend :-
" But there is more than I can see, And what I see I leave unsaid
Nor speak it, knowing Death has made His darkness beautiful with thee."
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