Poet - Robert Browning - 'O, To Be In England.".....

O to be in England, Now That April's There

O 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 bow

In England --- now!!

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossomed 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 could never recapture

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!

Robert Browning 1812 – 1889

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When the calendar turns the page to April, I always get a pang of nostalgia and immediately think of this poem and of England. There is truly no finer place in the world to be during the springtime. The photos above are a great example of what I mean.

Photos by permission of Maggie