<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Lines Written in Surrey, 1917</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">A <span class="smallcaps">sudden</span> swirl of song in the bright sky --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The little lark adoring his lord the sun;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Across the corn the lazy ripples run;</p><p class="line">Under the eaves, conferring drowsily,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Doves droop or amble; the agile waterfly</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Wrinkles the pool; and flowers, gay and dun,</p><p class="line">Rose, bluebell, rhododendron, one by one,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The buccaneering bees prove busily.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ah, who may trace this tranquil loveliness</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In verse felicitous? -- no measure tells;</p><p class="line">But gazing on her bosom we can guess</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Why men strike hard for England in red hells,</p><p class="line">Falling on dreams, 'mid Death's extreme caress,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of English daisies dancing in English dells.</p></div><p class="byline">George Herbert Clarke</p></body></html> · Great War