When merry milkmaids click the latch, And rarely smells the new-mown hay, And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch Twice or thrice his roundelay, Twice or thrice his roundelay; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.

Then they who slept were awakened by the multitudinous voicing of the birds; for at that hour the small fowl sang so joyous a roundelay that all the early morning was full of the sweet jargon of their chanting.

was all the maiden said, As she streamed her golden tresses through the half-unkneaden bread, While the sunset light came sheening athwart the oaken floor, And the Headsman chanted his roundelay at the soul-beshriven door.

When holy fathers wont to shrieve; Now gynneth this roundelay.

Within that self-same lonely woodland bow'r So sultry and still; but then, the tower, The hamlet tow'r, sent forth a roundelay; I seem'd to hear, till feelings o'er me stole Faintly and sweet, enwrapping all my soul, Joy, grief, were strangely blended in the sound.

This love enticeth him abroad to walk, There to invent and write new roundelays Of learn'd conceit, her fancies to allure To vain delights: such humours he allays, And sings of virtue and her garments pure.

Gentle creatures haunted it, and there was none to make afraid; wood-pigeons cooed and crickets chirped their shrill roundelays, anemones and lady-ferns looked up from the moss that kissed the wanderer's feet.

The valley rings with mirth and joy; And, pleased to welcome in the May, From hill to hill the echoes fling Their liveliest roundelay. 1836.