Birds and All Nature, Vol. V, No 1, January 1899

<h2><SPAN name="THE_HOLLY_TREE" id="THE_HOLLY_TREE"></SPAN>THE HOLLY TREE.</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">O reader! hast thou ever stood to see</div> <div class="verse indent-1">The Holly tree?</div> <div class="verse">The eye that contemplates it, well perceives</div> <div class="verse indent-1">Its glossy leaves,</div> <div class="verse">Ordered by an intelligence so wise</div> <div class="verse">As might confound the atheist's sophistries.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Below a circling fence its leaves are seen</div> <div class="verse indent-1">Wrinkled and keen;</div> <div class="verse">No grazing cattle through their prickly round</div> <div class="verse indent-1">Can reach to wound;</div> <div class="verse">But as they grow where nothing is to fear,</div> <div class="verse">Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I love to view these things with curious eyes,</div> <div class="verse indent-1">And moralize;</div> <div class="verse">And in this wisdom of the Holly tree</div> <div class="verse indent-1">Can emblem see</div> <div class="verse">Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme,</div> <div class="verse">One which may profit in the after-time.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Thus, though abroad perchance I might appear</div> <div class="verse indent-1">Harsh and austere,</div> <div class="verse">To those who on my leisure would intrude</div> <div class="verse indent-1">Reserved and rude,</div> <div class="verse">Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be</div> <div class="verse">Like the high leaves upon the Holly tree.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And should my youth, as youth is apt, I know,</div> <div class="verse indent-1">Some harshness show,</div> <div class="verse">All vain asperities I day by day</div> <div class="verse indent-1">Would wear away,</div> <div class="verse">Till the smooth temper of my age should be</div> <div class="verse">Like the high leaves upon the Holly tree.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And as when all the summer trees are seen</div> <div class="verse indent-1">So bright and green,</div> <div class="verse">The Holly leaves a sober hue display</div> <div class="verse indent-1">Less bright than they,</div> <div class="verse">But when the bare and wintry woods we see,</div> <div class="verse">What then so cheerful as the Holly tree?</div> <div class="verse ar">&mdash;<i>Robert Southey.</i></div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />