Rural Ceremony[310]

Closing the sacred Book which long has fed Our meditations, give we to a day Of annual joy one tributary lay; This day, 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!