A SONG OF EXILE

What is the news of England?

The April breezes blow,

Bringing to us faint odours

From lanes we used to know —

Lanes, where the hawthorn hedges

Foam into blossoms white;

What is the news of England

For England's sons to-night?

What is the news of England?

‘ Neath her white cliffs the sea

Croons its soft song of summer,

The golden days to be.

Her hills are fair with promise,

Her woods with voices ring,

From every copse the cuckoo

Shouts to the jocund Spring.

What is the news of England?

Once more the cowslip gleams

Gold in her misty meadows,

Gold by her murmuring streams.

Once more the April breezes

Blow secrets of delight

From the great heart of England

To England's sons to-night.