Poetry · Chapter
Robin Hood explained
The speaker laments the passing of the days of Robin Hood and his merry band, noting that the forest is silent and the old songs and adventures are gone.
What happens
The speaker laments the passing of the days of Robin Hood and his merry band, noting that the forest is silent and the old songs and adventures are gone. He calls for honoring their memory even as the world has changed, with nature and merriment replaced by commerce and loss.
Themes in this chapter
Sorrow and Melancholy
The poem is filled with a deep sense of loss for the bygone era of Robin Hood, with repeated laments for what is gone.
Nature and Imagination
The forest, once a place of life and merriment, is now silent and changed, highlighting the contrast between natural imagination and modern reality.
Characters to notice
- Robin Hood
The legendary outlaw, now sleeping in the underwood, whose days of adventure are past.
- Marian
Maid Marian, who would weep if she returned to find her forest days gone and honey cannot be got without money.
- Echo
Lone Echo, who once gave half the jesting in the forest, now silent.
Key passages
“No! those days are gone away, And their hours are old and gray, And their minutes buried all Under the down-trodden pall Of the leaves of many years”
Those days are completely over, their time has aged and faded, and every moment is buried under layers of fallen leaves from many years.
The speaker emphasizes the irreversible passage of time and the burial of the past under nature's decay.
“But you never may behold Little John, or Robin bold; Never one, of all the clan, Thrumming on an empty can Some old hunting ditty”
You will never see Little John or bold Robin Hood again, nor any of their band playing an old hunting song on an empty can.
The speaker declares that the legendary figures and their simple joys are irretrievably lost.
“She would weep that her wild bees Sang not to her—strange! that honey Can’t be got without hard money!”
She would cry because her wild bees no longer sing to her, and it's strange that honey cannot be obtained without money.
The lament highlights the shift from a natural, gift-based world to one where everything requires payment.