Blossom of the almond trees, April’s gift to April’s bees, Birthday ornament of spring, Flora’s fairest daughterling; Coming when no flowerets dare 5 Trust the cruel outer air; When the royal kingcup bold Dares not don his coat of gold; And the sturdy black-thorn spray Keeps his silver for the May;-- 10 Coming when no flowerets would, Save thy lowly sisterhood, Early violets, blue and white, Dying for their love of light. Almond blossom, sent to teach us 15 That the spring-days soon will reach us, Lest, with longing over-tried, We die as the violets died-- Blossom, clouding all the tree With thy crimson broidery, 20 Long before a leaf of green O’er the bravest bough is seen; Ah! when winter winds are swinging All thy red bells into ringing, With a bee in every bell, 25 Almond bloom, we greet thee well. _Edwin Arnold._ CCLXXXVIII _HOME THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD._ 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 sheaf 5 Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough, In England, now! And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds and all the swallows! 10 Hark 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 15 The first fine careless rapture! And though the fields look rough with hoary dew, All will be gay when noontide wakes anew The buttercups--the little children’s dower,-- Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower. 20 _Robert Browning._ CCLXXXIX _HOME THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA._ Nobly, nobly Cape St. Vincent to the North-west died away; Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay; Bluish mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay; In the dimmest North-east distance, dawned Gibraltar grand and gray; ‘Here and here did England help me; how can I help England?’ say, Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray, While Jove’s planet rises yonder, silent over Africa. _Robert Browning._ CCXC _JAMES AND JOHN._ Two brothers freely cast their lot With David’s royal Son; The cost of conquest counting not, They deem the battle won.