LASSINGTON
Reading edition
To Lassington the priests went out From Gloucester long ago To worship oaks and fool about With mistletoe. Now after twenty centuries Still men and girls do go Lassington way. To worship trees? You ask,—ah no! They laugh the magic boughs beneath, Catch hands, and kiss the while: And the dead Druids grind their teeth Below, or smile To see (ah, fair beneath the bough The fretted moonlight lies!) How readily come the victims now To sacrifice. How, robed in moonlight’s ancient gold, Another god doth reign, Tormenting men as did their old Grey gods of Pain.