John Ireland — English May

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