She saw the Spires of Oxford as she was passing by <br />And through the train carriage window she could see the cold grey sky <br />A World war was raging and a poem was in her head <br />And she thought of the brave young Oxford men some of them soon to be with the dead. <br /> <br />She wrote the Spires of Oxford passing through Oxford Town <br />A poem for the brave young Oxford men who dreamt of war renown <br />Who fought in Europe's trenches they were strangers to fear <br />In the treacherous gap of danger with the reaper lurking near. <br /> <br />Her name was Winifred Letts an Irish nurse and poet <br />And often at literary gatherings lines from her verses quote <br />But the famous Spires of Oxford not her only claim to fame <br />As many other memorable poems to them have got her name. <br /> <br />The poems of Winifred Letts I read them as a school going boy <br />And 'tis so true a thing of beauty is always a thing of joy <br />She was a gifted wordsmith with words she had a way <br />And the beauty in her verses I still can see today. <br /> <br />She saw the Spires of Oxford and she was inspired to rhyme <br />And she wrote about those brave young men some years short of their prime <br />Who left the Town of Oxford to fight in Europe far away <br />And some of them did not return where they died their remains lay.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/winifred-letts/
