ENGLISH DAISIES IN ENGLISH DELLS

These lines were written in rural Surrey in the year 1917, as many started to question the country's role in World War One. They contrast well the ideals of England with the nightmare of the trenches.

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A sudden swirl of song in the bright sky --

The little lark adoring his lord the sun;

Across the corn the lazy ripples run;

Under the eaves, conferring drowsily,

Doves droop or amble; the agile waterfly

Wrinkles the pool: and flowers, gay and dun,

Rose, bluebell, rhododendron, one by one,

The buccaneering bees prove busily.

Ah, who may trace this tranquil loveliness

In verse felicitous? -- no measure tells;

But gazing on her bosom we can guess

Why men strike hard for England in red hells,

Falling on dreams, 'mid Death's extreme caress,

Of English daisies dancing in English dells.

George Herbert Clarke (1873-1953)

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