Friday, 1 April 2011

OH, to be in England!

April Arriving in England - Schnitkunst by Nigel A.  JAMES 


Home Thoughts from Abroad


Robert Browning (1812 – 89)



I



OH, to be in England now that April’s there

And whoever wakes in England sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England – now!



II



And after April, when May follows

And the white-throat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossom’d pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops – at the bent spray’s edge

That’s the wise thrush: he sings each song twice over

Lest you should think he never could re-capture

The first fine careless rapture!

And, though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children’s dower, -

Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!


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Maggy Steiner

  Maggy Steiner had a wonderful childhood.  She went to school in Vienna, and spent her summers with her uncle and aunt and her two cousins ...