WW2 1941 pamphlet ‘Dunkirk’ poem by Canadian poet E.J. Pratt

Poem published in the year following the miraculous rescue of Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk France in 1940. 

The English May was slipping into June
With heralds that the spring had never known.
Black cavalry were astride the air;
The Down awoke to find their faces slashed;
There was blood on the hawthorn,
And song had died in the nightingales throats....

Cover image of troops marching, plane flying overhead.

Published in Toronto by The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited

Cover chipped and toning around edges, front and back detached from interior

14 pages

21.5 x 14 cm.

Edwin John Dove Pratt, FRSC CMG (February 4, 1882 – April 26, 1964), who published as E. J. Pratt, was "the leading Canadian poet of his time." He was a Canadian poet from Newfoundland who lived most of his life in Toronto, Ontario. A three-time winner of the country's Governor General's Award for poetry, he has been called "the foremost Canadian poet of the first half of the century."

...Sea poetry merges with war poetry in Dunkirk (1941), which recounts the epic rescue of British forces while also emphasizing its democratic nature.... Language plays a pivotal role as Churchill's call inspires the miraculous deliverance...

WIKIPEDIA