Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

F. Wyville Home b. 1851

An English Girl

SPEAK, quiet lips, and utter forth my fate;

Before thy beauty I bow down, I kneel,

Girl, and to thee my life I dedicate,

And seal the past up with a dateless seal.

What delicate hours and seasons without storm

Have nursed thee, and what happy English dale?

For tenderer is thy light and gracile form

Than any snowy wind-flower of the vale.

O wild-flower, though the bee that drinks thy wine

Must soar past crags that front the leaping sea,

I climb to thee; thy beauty shall be mine;

Or let the cold green wave go over me.