Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | III. The Seasons | | Home Thoughts from Abroad | | Robert Browning (1812–1889) |
| | 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 the brushwood sheaf | |
| Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, | |
| While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough | 5 |
| In England—now! | |
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II. And after April, when May follows | |
| And the white-throat builds, and all the swallows! | |
| Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge | |
| Leans to the field and scatters on the clover | 10 |
| 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 recapture | |
| The first fine careless rapture! | |
| And, though the fields look rough with hoary dew, | 15 |
| 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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