Flowers of the Saints.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Folkard, Richard
All Saints.
Amaranth.
In old church calendars Christmas Eve is marked “Templa exornantur”—Churches are decked.
Herrick, in the time of Charles I., thus combines a number of these old customs connected with the decoration of churches—
“Down with Rosemary and Bays,
Down with the Mistletoe,
Instead of Holly now upraise
The greener Box for show.
The Holly hitherto did sway;
Let Box now domineer,
Until the dancing Easter Day
Or Easter’s Eve appear.
Then youthful Box, which now hath grace
Your houses to renew,
Grown old, surrender must his place
Unto the crisped Yew.
When Yew is out, then Birch comes in,
And many flowers beside,
Both of a fresh and fragrant kin,
To honour Whitsuntide.
Green Rushes then, and sweetest Bents,
With cooler Oaken boughs,
Come in for comely ornaments
To re-adorn the house.
Thus times do shift; each thing his turn does hold,
New things succeed as former things grow old.”