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| SHERWOOD in the twilight, is Robin Hood awake? | |
| Gray and ghostly shadows are gliding thro’ the brake; | |
| Shadows of the dappled deer, dreaming of the morn, | |
| Dreaming of a shadowy man that winds a shadowy horn. | |
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| Robin Hood is here again; all his merry thieves | 5 |
| Hear a ghostly bugle-note shivering thro’ the leaves, | |
| Calling as he used to call, faint and far away, | |
| In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day. | |
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| Merry, merry England has kissed the lips of June: | |
| All the wings of fairyland were here beneath the moon; | 10 |
| Like a flight of rose leaves fluttering in a mist | |
| Of opal and ruby and pearl and amethyst. | |
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| Merry, merry England is waking as of old, | |
| With eyes of blither hazel and hair of brighter gold: | |
| For Robin Hood is here again beneath the bursting spray | 15 |
| In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day. | |
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| Love is in the greenwood building him a house | |
| Of wild rose and hawthorne and honeysuckle boughs: | |
| Love is in the greenwood: Dawn is in the skies; | |
| And Marian is waiting with a glory in her eyes. | 20 |
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| Hark! The dazzled laverock climbs the golden steep; | |
| Marian is waiting: is Robin Hood asleep? | |
| Round the fairy grass-rings frolic elf and fay, | |
| In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day. | |
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| Oberon, Oberon, rake away the gold, | 25 |
| Rake away the red leaves, roll away the mold, | |
| Rake away the gold leaves, roll away the red, | |
| And wake Will Scarlett from his leafy forest bed. | |
| |
| Friar Tuck and Little John are riding down together | |
| With quarter-staff and drinking-can and gray goose feather; | 30 |
| The dead are coming back again; the years are rolled away | |
| In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day. | |
| |
| Softly over Sherwood the south wind blows; | |
| All the heart of England hidden in a rose | |
| Hears across the greenwood the sunny whisper leap, | 35 |
| Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep? | |
| |
| Hark, the voice of England wakes him as of old, | |
| And, shattering the silence with a cry of brighter gold, | |
| A bugle in the greenwood echoes from the steep, | |
| Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep? | 40 |
| |
| Where the deer are gliding down the shadowy glen | |
| All across the glades of fern he calls his merry men; | |
| Doublets of the Lincoln green glancing thro’ the May | |
| In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day; | |
| |
| Calls them and they answer: from aisles of oak and ash | 45 |
| Rings the Follow! Follow! and the boughs begin to crash; | |
| The ferns begin to waver and the flowers begin to fly; | |
| And through the crimson dawning the robber band goes by. | |
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| Robin! Robin! Robin! All his merry thieves | |
| Answer as the bugle-note shivers thro’ the leaves: | 50 |
| Calling as he used to call, faint and far away, | |
| In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day. | |
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