Sycamore grew by the door, with a woodbine

wreathing around it.

85 Rudely carved was the porch, with seats beneath; and a footpath

Led through an orchard wide, and disappeared in the meadow.

Under the sycamore-tree were hives overhung by a penthouse,

Such as the traveller sees in regions remote by the roadside,

Built o'er a box for the poor, or the blessed image of Mary.

90 Farther down, on the slope of the hill, was the well with its moss-grown

Bucket, fastened with iron, and near it a trough for the horses.

Shielding the house from storms, on the north, were the barns and the farm-yard.

There stood the broad-wheeled wains and the an tique ploughs and the harrows;

There were the folds for the sheep; and there, in his feathered seraglio,

95 Strutted the lordly turkey, and crowed the cock, with the selfsame

Voice that in ages of old had startled the penitent

Peter.

Bursting with hay were the barns, themselves a village. In each one

Far o'er the gable projected a roof of thatch; and a staircase,

Under the sheltering eaves, led up to the odorous corn-loft.

93. The accent is on the first syllable of antique, where it remains in the form antic, which once had the same general meaning.

99. Odorous. The accent here, as well as in line 403, is upon

100 There too the dove-cot stood, with its meek and

innocent inmates

Murmuring ever of love; while above in the variant breezes

Numberless noisy weathercocks rattled and sang of mutation.

Thus, at peace with God and the world, the farmer of Grand-Pré

Lived on his sunny farm, and Evangeline governed his household.

105 Many a youth, as he knelt in the church and opened his missal,

Fixed his eyes upon her as the saint of his deepest devotion;

Happy was he who might touch her hand or the hem of her garment!

Many a suitor came to her door, by the darkness befriended,

And, as he knocked and waited to hear the sound

of her footsteps,

110 Knew not which beat the louder, his heart or the

knocker of iron;

Or, at the joyous feast of the Patron Saint of the

village,

Bolder grew, and pressed her hand in the dance as he whispered

the first syllable, where it is commonly placed; but Milton, who of all poets had the most refined ear, writes

"So from the root

Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves

More airy, last the bright consummate flower

Spirits odorous breathes."

Par. Lost, Book V., lines 479–482.

But he also uses the more familiar accent in other passages, as

"An amber scent, of odorous perfume."

Samson Agonistes, 720