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Sonnet on Robin Hood I

The trees in Sherwood forest are old and good,
   The grass beneath them now is dimly green;
   Are they deserted all? Is no young mien
With loose-slung bugle met within the wood:
No arrow found—foil'd of its antler'd food,
   Struck in the oak's rude side? is there nought seen,
   To mark the revelries which there have been
In the sweet days of merry Robin Hood?

Go there, with summer, and with evening—go,
   In the soft shadows like some wandering man,
And thou shalt far amid the forest know
   The archer men in green, with belt and bow,
   Feasting on phesant, river-fowl, and swan,
With Robin at their head and Marian.