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.
THE AIR-MEN
We brought great ships to birth,
We builded towns and towers—
Lords of the sea and earth,
Soon shall the sky be ours.
Soon shall our navies drift
Like swallows down the wind,
Shall wheel and swoop and lift,
Leaving the clouds behind.
The stars our keels shall know,
The eagle, as it flies,
Shall scream to see us go
Swift moving through the skies.