THE SWEET O’ THE YEAR 
55 
figure song), enchant the copses as of old. Lindens 
and beeches hang this palace of early summer with their 
freshest tapestries; and I am, besides, rejoiced to see 
that the oak is most certainly to be before the ash. 
Now comes in the sweet o’ the year, and it would be 
good indeed to linger, were it possible, in this magic 
moment, before the great summer silence descends in 
royal pomp upon the garden, and “ Time, throned on 
a saffron evening, seems to chime all in.” 
