THEN next a merry woodsman, clad in green, Stept vanward from his mates, that idly stood Each at his proper ease, as they had been Nursed in the liberty of old Sherwood, And wore the livery of Robin Hood, Who wont in forest shades to dine and sup, -- So came this chief right frankly, and made good His haunch against his axe, and thus spoke up, Doffing his cap, which was an acorn's cup: -- "We be small foresters and gay, who tend On trees, and all their furniture of green, Training the young boughs airily to bend, And show blue snatches of the sky between: -- Or knit more close intricacies, to screen Birds' crafty dwellings as may hide them best, But most the timid blackbird's -- she, that seen, Will bear black poisonous berries to her nest, Lest man should cage the darlings of her breast. "We bend each tree in proper attitude, And founting willows train in silvery falls; We frame all shady roofs and arches rude, And verdant aisles leading to Dryad's halls, Or deep recesses where the echo calls; -- We shape all plumy trees against the sky, And carve tall elms' Corinthian capitals, -- When sometimes, as our tiny hatchets ply, Men say, the tapping woodpecker is nigh. "Sometimes we scoop the squirrel's hollow cell, And sometimes carve quaint letters on trees' rind, That haply some lone musing wight may spell Dainty Aminta, -- Gentle Rosalind, -- Or chastest Laura, -- sweetly call'd to mind In sylvan solitudes, ere he lies down; -- And sometimes we enrich gray stems, with twined And fragrant ivy, -- or rich moss, whose brown Burns into gold as the warm sun goes down. "And, lastly, for mirth's sake and Christmas cheer, We bear the seedling berries, for increase, To graft the Druid oaks, from year to year, Careful that misletoe may never cease; -- Wherefore, if thou dost prize the shady peace Of sombre forests, or to see light break Through sylvan cloisters, and in spring release Thy spirit amongst leaves from careful ake, Spare us our lives for the green Dryad's sake." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: CUPID AND VENUS by MARK ALEXANDER BOYD THE EXEQUY [ON HIS WIFE] by HENRY KING (1592-1669) BIRDS by NESTA HIGGINSON SKRINE OEDIPUS AT COLONUS: OLD AGE by SOPHOCLES YARROW REVISITED by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH STANZAS ON THE DEATH OF SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY by BERNARD BARTON |