| |
| BRING out the hemlock! bring the funeral yew! | |
| The faithful ivy that doth all enfold; | |
| Heap high the rocks, the patient brown earth strew, | |
| And cover them against the numbing cold. | |
| Marshal my retinue of bird and beast, | 5 |
| Wren, titmouse, robin, birds of every hue; | |
| Let none keep back, no, not the very least, | |
| Nor fox, nor deer, nor tiny nibbling crew, | |
| Only bid one of all my forest clan | |
| Keep far from us on this our funeral day. | 10 |
| On the grey wolf I lay my sovereign ban, | |
| The great grey wolf who scrapes the earth away, | |
| Lest, with hook’d claw and furious hunger, he | |
| Lay bare my dead for gloating foes to see— | |
| Lay bare my dead, who died, and died for me. | 15 |
| |
| For I must shortly die as they have died, | |
| And lo! my doom stands yoked and link’d with theirs; | |
| The axe is sharpen’d to cut down my pride: | |
| I pass, I die, and leave no natural heirs. | |
| Soon shall my sylvan coronals be cast; | 20 |
| My hidden sanctuaries, my secret ways, | |
| Naked must stand to the rebellious blast; | |
| No Spring shall quicken what this Autumn slays. | |
| Therefore, while still I keep my russet crown, | |
| I summon all my lieges to the feast. | 25 |
| Hither, ye flutterers! black, or pied, or brown; | |
| Hither, ye furr’d ones! Hither every beast! | |
| Only to one of all my forest clan | |
| I cry, ‘Avaunt! Our mourning revels flee!’ | |
| On the grey wolf I lay my sovereign ban, | 30 |
| The great grey wolf with scraping claws, lest he | |
| Lay bare my dead for gloating foes to see— | |
| Lay bare my dead, who died, and died for me. | |
| |
