Origin of Names 



The maid is out in the soft April light, 

 Our store of linen hanging up to dry; 

 On clump of box, on the small grass there lie 

 Bits of thin lace, and broidery blossom-white. 

 * * * Our Flags are out. 



Blue by the box, blue by the kitchen stair; 

 Betwixt the twain she trips across the wind, 

 Her warm hair blown all cloudy-wise about, 

 Slim as the Flags, and every whit as fair. 



Lizette W . Reese: Ellen Hanging Clothes. 



For the marsh-loving species, "Flag" has long been 

 a common name. 



When Hatfield taking heart, where late she sadly stood, 

 Sends little Roding forth, her best beloved Flood; 



***** 



Which as she wand'reth on through Waltham holds her way. 

 With goodly oaken wreaths which make her wondrous gay; 

 But making at the last into the watery marsh, 

 ***** 



Those wreaths away she casts, which bounteous Waltham gave. 

 With bulrush. Flags and reed to make her wondrous brave. 

 And herself's strength divides to lesser streams, 

 So wantoning she falls into her Sovereign Thames. 



Drayton: Polyolhion. 



Scarcely the Nereids thus arrived from the seas. 



But from the fresher streams the brighter Naides 



To Loving-land make haste with all the speed they may. 



