A January Night

"There was a singing woman     Came riding across the mead     At the time of the mild May weather,      Tameless, tireless;     This song she"

"(M. H. 1772-1857)     She told how they used to form for the country dances -      "The Triumph," "The New-rigged Ship" -     To the light of th"

"What did it mean that noontide, when     You bade me pluck the flower     Within the other woman's bower,     Whom I knew nought of then?"

"Some say the spot is banned; that the pillar Cross-and-Hand      Attests to a deed of hell;     But of else than of bale is the mystic tale"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"