Home-Thoughts, from Abroad
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad
Original Text
Robert Browning, Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845).
1 Oh, to be in England
2Now that April's there,
3And whoever wakes in England
4Sees, some morning, unaware,
5That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
6Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
7While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
8In England--now!
9 And after April, when May follows,
10And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
11Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
12Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
13Blossoms and dewdrops--at the bent spray's edge--
14That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
15Lest you should think he never could recapture
16The first fine careless rapture!
17And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
18All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
19The buttercups, the little children's dower
20--Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!
Publication Start Year
1845
RPO poem Editors
J. D. Robins
RPO Edition
2RP 2.425.