ST. MICHAEL’S EVE.
I will tell to you a story, for in winter time we bore ye
With many an ancient legend and tale of by-gone time;
And methinks that there is in it enough to pass a minute,
So, to add to my vain-glory, I have put it into rhyme.
As I heard it you shall hear it,—by one whom I revere, it
Was told me, as in childhood upon his knee I sat.
It treats of days long vanished,—of the times of James the Banished,
Of periwig and rapier, and quaint three-cornered hat.