ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
XXXII. RURAL CEREMONY
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
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 churchyard, 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 10 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!