The Homes of England

The stately homes of England!

How beautiful they stand,

Amidst their tall ancestral trees,

O'er all the pleasant land!

The deer across their greensward bound

Through shade and sunny gleam,

And the swan glides past them with the sound

Of some rejoicing stream.

The merry homes of England!

Around their hearths by night

What gladsome looks of household love

Meet in the ruddy light!

There woman's voice flows forth in song,

Or childish tale is told,

Or lips move tunefully along

Some glorious page of old.

The blessèd homes of England!

How softly on their bowers

Is laid the holy quietness

That breathes from Sabbath hours!

Solemn, yet sweet, the church-bell's chime

Floats through their woods at morn;

All other sounds, in that still time,

Of breeze and leaf are born.

The cottage homes of England!

By thousands on her plains,

They are smiling o'er the silvery brooks,

And round the hamlets' fanes.

Through glowing orchards forth they peep,

Each from its nook of leaves;

And fearless there the lowly sleep,

As the bird beneath their eaves.

The free, fair homes of England!

Long, long, in hut and hall

May hearts of native proof be reared

To guard each hallowed wall!

And green forever be the groves,

And bright the flowery sod,

Where first the child's glad spirit loves

Its country and its God!

Felicia Hemans.