RURAL CEREMONY

Closing the sacred Bookwhich long has fed

Our meditations,give we to a day

Of annualjoy one tributary lay;

Thisday, when, forth by rustic music led,

The village Children, while the sky is red

With evening lights, advance in long array

Through the still church-yard, each with garland gay,

That, carried sceptre-like, o'ertops the head

Of the proud Bearer. To the wide church-door,

Charged with these offerings which their fathers bore

For decoration in the Papal time,

The innocent Procession softly moves:—

The spirit of Laud is pleased in heaven's pure clime,

And Hooker's voice the spectacle approves!