CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

236 DRAMATIC ROMANCES AND LYRICS
5
- Yet I will but say what mere friends say,
Or only a thought stronger;
I will hold your hand but as long as all may,
Or so very little longer!
XXIV
HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD
1
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 brush-wood shea!
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England-now I
2
And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows­
Hark I 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 b uttercups, the little children's dower,
-Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower I
3
H ere's to Nelson's memory I
'Tis the second time that I, at sea,
Right off Cape Trafalgar here,
Have drunk it deep in British beer:
Nelson for ever-any time
Am I his to command in prose or rhyme I
Give me of N elson only a touch,
And I guard it, be it little or much;
Here's one the Captain gives, and so
Down at the word, by George, shall it go I
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