To the Hawthorn-tree
To the Hawthorn-tree
Original Text
Flowers of France: The Renaissance Period, from Ronsard to Saint-Amant, Representative Poems of the Sixteenth Century, trans. John Payne (London: Villon Society, 1907): 31-32.
1Hail, bright blossoming hawthorn-tree,
2 This fair lea
3Filling thus with leaves a-throng!
4Foot and crownal, stem and bough,
5 Clad art thou
6With a wild vine's tendrils long.
7Lo! two camps of emmets red
8 Have their stead
9Taken up thy roots below:
10In the fissures of thy stem,
11 Over them,
12Bees are bedded evenso.
13The new songster nightingale,
14 Of Love's ail
15Him to solace and allay,
16Suing to his mistress dear,
17 Year by year.
18In thy branches makes his stay.
19In thy top he builds his nest.
20 All to-pressed.
21Made with down and mosses fine.
22Where his younglings pleasant prey
23 Shall one day
24Be unto these hands of mine.
25Live, then, pleasant plant of May,
26 Live for aye!
27Axe nor levin, hail nor snow.
28Wind nor rigour of the rime.
29 Nay, nor Time,
30With its ravin, lay thee low!
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
Data entry: Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2012