INTRODUCTORY

CONTENTS.

HOME THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD

HOME THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA

"HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT TO AIX"

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121

A SELECTION FROM THE POEMS

OF ROBERT BROWNING.

HOME THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD.

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
In England-now!

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
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,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
-Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!