Sturdy-branching, skyward oaks,
Fated for the woodman’s strokes,
For thousands then were doom’d to fall,—
The knight’s commands were “one and all.”[20]
Methinks I hear the axe, and saw,
Re-echoing through the wood below;
And the fell-man’s clam’ring tongue
Timing forth a welkin-song,
Whilst he obeys the knight’s decree,
And labours on right cheerfully.