CLOSING the sacred Book which long has fed Our meditations, give we to a day Of annual joy one tributary lay; This day, when, forth by rustic music led, The village Children, while the sky is red With evening lights, advance in long array Through the still churchyard, each with garland gay, That, carried sceptre-like, o'ertops the head Of the proud Bearer. To the wide church-door, Charged with these offerings which their fathers bore For decoration in the Papal time, The innocent procession softly moves: -- The spirit of Laud is pleased in heaven's pure clime, And Hooker's voice the spectacle approves! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MOTHER AND POET; TURIN, AFTER THE NEWS FROM GAETA, 1861 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING INSTANS TYRANNUS by ROBERT BROWNING AUTUMN WOODS by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY THE GRASSHOPPER; TO MY NOBLE FRIEND MR. CHARLES COTTON by RICHARD LOVELACE HEATHER ALE: A GALLOWAY LEGEND by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE ALCHEMIST by ST. CLAIR ADAMS THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH: BOOK 4. THE PASSIONS by JOHN ARMSTRONG |