A+Song+of+Sherwood

** A Song of Sherwood **

//Alfred Noyes //(1880 - 1958)

Sherwood in the twilight, is Robin Hood awake?

Grey and ghostly shadows are gliding through the brake,

Shadows of the dappled deer, dreaming of the morn,

Dreaming of a shadowy man that winds a shadowy horn.

Robin Hood is here again: all his merry thieves

Hear a ghostly bugle-note shivering through the leaves,

Calling as he used to call, faint and far away,

In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

All the gnarled old thorn-trees are blossom-white for June.

All the elves that Marian knew were here beneath the moon –

Younger than the wild thyme, older than the trees,

Lob and Mab and Bramblescratch, on their unbridled bees.

Oaken-hearted England is waking as of old,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">With eyes of blither hazel and hair of brighter gold:

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">For Robin Hood is here again beneath the bursting spray

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Love is in the greenwood building him a house

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Of wild rose and hawthorn and honeysuckle boughs:

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Love is in the greenwood, dawn is in the skies,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">And Marian is waiting with her laughter-loving eyes.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Hark! The dazzled laverock climbs the golden steep!

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Marian is waiting: is Robin Hood asleep?

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Where the last dark arrow fell, the white scuts flash away,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Oberon, Oberon, the hazel copses ring,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Time to hush the night-jar and let the throstle sing,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Time to let the blackbird lift a bonny head,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">And wake Will Scarlett from his leafy forest bed.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Friar Tuck and Little John are riding down together

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">With quarter-staff and drinking-can and grey goose feather.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">The dead are coming back again, the years are rolled away

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Softly over Sherwood the south wind blows.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">All the heart of England hid in every rose

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Hears across the greenwood the sunny whisper leap,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep?

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Hark, the voice of England wakes him as of old

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">And, shattering the silence with a cry of brighter gold,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Bugles in the greenwood echo from the steep,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">// Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep? //

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Where the deer are gliding, down the shadowy glen,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">All across the glades of fern he calls his merry men –

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Doublets of the Lincoln green glancing through the may

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day –

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Calls them and they answer: from aisles of oak and ash

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Rings the // Follow! Follow! // and the boughs begin to crash,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">The ferns begin to flutter and the flowers begin to fly,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">And through the crimson dawning the robber band goes by.

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">// Robin! Robin! Robin! // All his merry thieves

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Answer as the bugle-note shivers through the leaves,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Calling as he used to call, faint and far away,

<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline;">In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.