Page:Soldier poets, songs of the fighting men, 1916.djvu/67

 GEORGE C. MICHAEL

An April Song

RCHARD land! Orchard land!

Damson blossom, primrose bloom:

Avon, like a silver band

Winds from Stratford down to Broome:

All the orchards shimmer white

For an April day's delight:

We have risen in our might,

Left this land we love, to fight,

Fighting still, that these may stand,

Orchard land! Orchard land!

Running stream! Running stream!

Ruddy tench and silver perch:

Shakespeare loved the water's gleam

Sparkling on by Welford church:

Water fay meets woodland gnome

Where the silver eddies foam

Thro' the richly scented loam:

We are fain to see our home,

See again thy silver gleam,

Running stream! Running stream!

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