Ballads (Masefield, 1903)/Midsummer Night
Midsummer Night
"They tell a tale in the taverns of a white lady riding in the wood each Beltane. They call her Queen Elizabeth, though it is but a changing of the name. It is the lady Dian gone a-masquerading."—Samuel Trairon's MS.
The perfect disc of the sacred moon
Through still blue heaven serenely swims,
And the lone bird's liquid music brims
The peace of the night with a perfect tune.
Through still blue heaven serenely swims,
And the lone bird's liquid music brims
The peace of the night with a perfect tune.
This is that holiest night o' the year
When (the mowers say) may be heard and seen
The ghostly court of the English queen,
Who rides to harry and hunt the deer.
When (the mowers say) may be heard and seen
The ghostly court of the English queen,
Who rides to harry and hunt the deer.
And the woodland creatures cower awake,
A strange unrest is on harts and does,
For the maiden Dian a-hunting goes,
And the trembling deer are a-foot in the brake.
A strange unrest is on harts and does,
For the maiden Dian a-hunting goes,
And the trembling deer are a-foot in the brake.
They start at a shaken leaf: the sound
Of a dry twig snapped by a squirrel's foot
Is a nameless dread: and to them the hoot
Of a mousing owl is the cry of a hound.
Of a dry twig snapped by a squirrel's foot
Is a nameless dread: and to them the hoot
Of a mousing owl is the cry of a hound.
Oh soon the forest will ring with cries,
The dim green coverts will flash: the grass
Will glow as the radiant hunters pass
After the quarry with burning eyes.
The dim green coverts will flash: the grass
Will glow as the radiant hunters pass
After the quarry with burning eyes.
The hurrying feet will range unstayed
Of questing goddess and hunted fawn,
Till the east is grey with the sacred dawn,
And the red cock wakens the milking maid.
Of questing goddess and hunted fawn,
Till the east is grey with the sacred dawn,
And the red cock wakens the milking maid.