SANDY
An outland weald
I come from, and a dateless reign
That modes and periods never touch.
BERTRAM
From Epping Forest, I'll be sworn,
The wilderness you haunt so much!
SANDY
No; from a less familiar bourne:
A Sussex chace renowned of old
Where withering innovation halts;
A tract of mingled wood and wold.
Of ragged heaths and ferny vaults.
LIONEL
St. Leonard's Forest by your shoes
Over the latchet daubed with earth!
I know it well: the Mole, the Ouse,
Arun and Adur have their birth
Among its silting springs; and there
The nightingale has never sung,
They say, so humid is the air.
So dank the woods with ivy hung.
In summer-time you lightly tread
On moss as green as emerald,
And soft as silken velvet spread
Along the forest chancel, stalled
With bowers of thorn and laurel-tree;
And roomier and loftier
Than forest aisles are wont to be,
The green groined roof of beech and fir
Admits a dulcet twilight filled
With golden motes and beryl hues.
That through the darkling thickets gild
Arun and Adur, Mole and Ouse.
[Extract]
Poetry Atlas has many other poems about Sussex, including more poems about the River Arun.
The Atlas also has many other poems about forests.