Green banners just unfurled,
Summer comes apace,
There will be a new world
At the old home place;
Scarlet wing will flash by,
Meadow-lark will soar high—
O, and that is where I
Turn my longing face!

Never days like those days,
Never joy like mine;
All the world a soft haze—
All the world a shrine!
Overhead, the blue sheen;
Underneath, the new green;
I with beating heart between
Finding life divine!

Ah! and how the birds sang
Every sunny day,
All the fields and woods rang
With their ecstasy;
How my wanton pulse thrills,
How my homesick heart fills,
Thinking of those green hills
Dear and far away!