Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Windsor Forest | | Herne’s Oak | | William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
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THERE is an old tale goes, that Herne the hunter, | |
| Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest, | |
| Doth all the winter time, at still midnight, | |
| Walk round about an oak, with great ragg’d horns; | |
| And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle; | 5 |
| And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain | |
| In a most hideous and dreadful manner: | |
| You have heard of such a spirit; and well you know, | |
| The superstitious idle-headed eld | |
| Receiv’d and did deliver to our age, | 10 |
| This tale of Herne the hunter, for a truth. | | | | |
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