At first cry of the quest quakèd the deer + 

And doting for dread went away up the dale, + 

Hied to the heights, but angerly there + 

Were stay’d at the stations, that stoutly ascried. + 

The high-headed harts they let háve a passage, + 

And the brave bucks too, with the broad antlers; + 

For in fermison months the master had bidden + 

That no man should meddle with the mále dèer. + 

But the hinds they held in, with a Hey! and a Ware! + 

And with din drove the does, down to the valleys. + 

Then sharp was the shooting of wingèd shafts! + 

At each woodland glade whistled an arrow + 

That on brown hide bit, with its broád bàrb; + 

How they bray’d and bled, on bank as they died! + 

And running on a race, hounds rush’d in pursuit, + 

Hunters with horns hasten’d them after, + 

With a cracking cry as if cliffs had bursten! + 

And any that scaped the shafts of the shooters + 

With a stour were stay’d and torn at the stations, + 

By the time they had been turn’d and teas’d to the waters; + 

So wary were the wights that watch’d in the vale, + 

And the greyhounds so great, that gripp’d them anon + 

And fell’d them to ground, fast as e’er look + 

ye might. + 

The lord, like happy boy, + 

Rode and did oft alight; + 

He drove that day with joy + 

A-hunting till the night. + 