Green rushes then, and sweetest bents,
With cooler oaken boughs,
Come in for comely ornaments,
To readorn the house.
Thus times do shift, each thing his turn does hold;
New things succeed as former things grow old.
Robert Herrick.
ANOTHER CEREMONY.
Down with the rosemary, and so
Down with the bays and mistletoe;
Down with the holly, ivy, all
Wherewith ye dressed the Christmas hall,
That so the superstitious find
No one last branch there left behind;
For, look! how many leaves there be
Neglected there, maids, trust to me
So many goblins you shall see.
Robert Herrick.