244 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Wordsworth also uses a very characteristic epithet : 



" The staff I yet remember that upbore 

 The bending body of my active sire ; 

 His seat beneath the honied sycamore 

 Where the bees humm'd ; and chair by winter-fire." 

 Female Vagrant. 



He describes it as serving the office of the box : 



" On pipes of sycamore they play 

 The fragments of a Christmas hymn." 



Idle Shepherd Boys. 



Cowper describes the changes of its leaf in autumn : 



" The maple, and the beech of oily nuts 

 Prolific, and the lime at dewy eve 

 Diffusing odours ; nor unnoted pass 

 The sycamore, capricious in attire, 

 Now green, now tawny, and, ere autumn yet 

 Hare changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright." 



Task, book i. 



Clare says of trees in autumn : 



" A russet red the hazels gain, 



As suited to their drear decline; 



"IVhile maples brightest dress retain, 



And in the gayest yellows shine." 



