Spenser’s pageant figure reminds us that September is the month
of harvest:
of harvest:
Next him September marchéd, eek on foot,
Yet was he heavy laden with the spoil
Of harvest‘s riches, which he made his boot,
And him enriched with bounty of the soil:
In his one hand, as fit for harvest’s toil
He held a knife-hook; and in th’other hand
A pair of weights, with which he did assoil
Both more and less, where it in doubt did stand,
And equal gave to each as Justice duly scanned.
“Boot” here means “’benefit’; and “assoil’, “determine’”.
Next Poem: The Hock Cart by Robert Herrick