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Poems of Robert Herrick; A Selection From Hesperides and Noble Numbers
Poems of Robert Herrick A Selection From Hesperides and Noble Numbers Author:Robert Herrick General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1900 Original Publisher: The Century Co. Subjects: History / General Literary Criticism / Poetry Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you... more » buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: THE HOCK-CART OR HARVEST HOME. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE MILDMAY, EARL OF WESTMORELAND COME, sons of summer, by whose toil We are the lords of wine and oil; By whose tough labors and rough hands We rip up first, then reap our lands. Crown'd with the ears of corn, now come, And to the pipe sing harvest home. Come forth, my lord, and see the cart Dress'd up with all the country art; See here a malkin, there a sheet, As spotless pure as it is sweet; The horses, mares, and frisking fillies, Clad all in linen white as lilies. The harvest swains and wenches bound For joy, to see the hock-cart crowned. About the cart, hear how the rout Of rural younglings raise the shout; Pressing before, some coming after, Those with a shout, and these with laughter. Some bless the cart, some kiss the sheaves, Some prank them up with oaken leaves; Some cross the fill-horse, some with great Devotion stroke the home-borne wheat; While other rustics, less attent To prayers than to merriment, Run after with their breeches rent. Well, on, brave boys, to your lord's hearth, Glitt'ring with fire, where, for your mirth, Ye shall see first the large and chief Foundation of your feast, fat beef; With upper stories, mutton, veal, And bacon (which makes full the meal), With several dishes standing by, As here a custard, there a pie, And here all-tempting frumenty. And for to make the merry cheer, If smirking wine be wanting here, There 's that w...« less