Came stag and timid hind, on silver hoof and drank.

The pen of voiceful narrative may well

That solemn congress in the forest call

A thrilling and romantic spectacle:

The trunks of oaken monarchs, huge and tall,

Were the rough columns of their council hall;

Thick boughs were interwoven overhead,

And winds made music with their leafy pall:

Below a tangled sea of brushwood spread,

Through which, to far-off wild, the beaten war-path led.