Alfred Noyes (1880–1958)

WHEN Spring comes back to England

And crowns her brows with May,

Round the merry moonlit world

She goes the greenwood way:

She throws a rose to Italy,

A fleur-de-lys to France;

But round her regal morris-ring

The seas of England dance.

When Spring comes back to England

And dons her robe of green,

There ’s many a nation garlanded,

But England is the Queen;

She ’s Queen, she ’s Queen of all the world

Beneath the laughing sky,

For the nations go a-Maying

When they hear the New Year cry—

‘Come over the water to England,

My old love, my new love,

Come over the water to England

In showers of flowery rain;

Come over the water to England,

April, my true love,

And tell the heart of England

The Spring is here again!’