Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/235

BOOK VIII.] Entered, with Shakspeare's genius, the wild woods

Of Arden, amid sunshine or in shade,

Culled the best fruits of Time's uncounted hours,

Ere Phœbe sighed for the false Ganymede;

Or there where Perdita and Florizel

Together danced, Queen of the feast, and King;

Nor such as Spenser fabled. True it is,

That I had heard (what he perhaps had seen)

Of maids at sunrise bringing in from far

Their May-bush, and along the street in flocks

Parading with a song of taunting rhymes,

Aimed at the laggards slumbering within doors;

Had also heard, from those who yet remembered,

Tales of the May-pole dance, and wreaths that decked

Porch, door-way, or kirk-pillar; and of youths,

Each with his maid, before the sun was up,

By annual custom, issuing forth in troops,

To drink the waters of some sainted well,

And hang it round with garlands. Love survives;

But, for such purpose, flowers no longer grow:

The times, too sage, perhaps too proud, have dropped

These lighter graces; and the rural ways

And manners which my childhood looked upon

Were the unluxuriant produce of a life

Intent on little but substantial needs,