Staring across the cruel miles,

And wondering of kindlier spots.

An organ, just across the way,

Sobs out its ragtime melody;

But in my heart it seems to play:

A wild rose blows by Bermondsey!

And dreams of happy morning hills

And woodlands laced with greenest boughs

Are mine to-day amid the ills

Of Tooley Street and wharfside sloughs,