English May
John Ireland, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Would God your health were as this month of May
Should be, were this not England, - and your face
Abroad, to give the gracious sunshine grace
And laugh beneath the budding hawthorn-spray
But here the hedgerows pine from green to grey
While yet May's lyre is tuning, and her song
Is weak in shade that should in sun be strong;
And your pulse springs not to so faint a lay
If in my life be breath of Italy
Would God that I might yield it all to you!
So, when such grafted warmth had burgeoned through
The languor of your Maytime’s hawthorn-tree
My spirit at rest should walk unseen and see
The garland of your beauty bloom anew