Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/81

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Brown medlars, plums both black and white,

The Apples and chestnuts, peaches bright;

Sorb-apples, barberries, fruit of lote

And many more of lesser note.

And all around this pleasant close

Holly, and laurel, and holm arose

With yew and hornbeam, fit I trow

For flitting shaft, and speeding bow;

The cypress sad, and pines that sigh

To soft south breezes mournfully.

Beech, loved of squirrels, olive dark,

And graceful birch with silvery bark;

The shimmering aspen, maple tall,

And lofty ash that topped the wall,

The limber hazel, oak trees hoar,

But wherefore should I tell of more?

would your heart be ere

I numbered half that flourished there.

But this I say, such skilful art

Had planned the trees that each apart

Six fathoms stood, yet like a net

The interlacing branches met,

Through which no scorching rays could pass

To sear the sward, and thus the grass

Kept ever tender, fresh and green,

Beneath their cool and friendly screen.

Roebuck and deer strayed up and down

The mead, and troops of squirrels brown

The tree-boles scoured, while conies grey

Shot merrily in jocund play