Now That April's Here

"When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim;

Hath put a spirit of youth in everything."

-William Shakespeare

A meadow of lovely yellow Buttercups in Shropshire, England

O, to be in England

Now that April's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

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 white-throat builds and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dew-drops, 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

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be bright when noontide wakes anew.

The buttercups, the little children's flower

-Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower.

Buttercups and Daises

By Scottish artist 

Hugh Cameron

(1835-1918 )