December Night

"The chime of the bells, and the church clock striking eight     Solemnly and distinctly cries down the babel of children still playing in the hay"

"Outside the house an ash-tree hung its terrible whips,     And at night when the wind arose, the lash of the tree     Shrieked and slashed the w"

"The plane leaves     fall black and wet     on the lawn;     The cloud sheaves     in heaven's fields set     droop and are drawn     in f"

"They are chanting now the service of All the Dead     And the village folk outside in the burying ground     Listen - except those who strive wi"

"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"