ON THE SOUTH COAST

Come away into the sun and see

All the heavens that used to be,

Daily, hourly, brought to birth

Out of the deep remembering earth.

This is England, this is the land

That holds my heart in her sweet hand.

This is she whose turf, I pray,

Will hide me, on her breast, one day.

Cast you down on the close-cropped turf,

See how the white cliff spreads the surf,

On green-eyed seas that glitter and trail

Into the south like a peacock's tail.

Then, come away over the hills of thyme,

Where folds like elfin belfries chime

Till Eve, in a cloud of her dusky hair,

Makes it Elf-land everywhere.

You shall pity the king on his throne.

You shall know what never was known.

All the glory of all the skies

Utterly yours in your true love's eyes;

All the bloom to the world's end

And all the heavens that over it bend,

Compacted in one garden white,

The garden of your love's delight.

This is England, this is the land

That holds my soul in her sweet hand.

This is she whose turf, I pray,

Will hide me on her heart one day.