THE ELM AND BLASTED TREE.
The lengthening shades and glowing west
Proclaimed the hour I loved the best;
When tempted forth to feel the air,
And join in nature's evening prayer,
With calm delight, I silent strayed
To where an elmtree's graceful shade,
With invitation kind and sweet,
Seemed to present a verdant seat.
There, seated on the fragrant ground,
I listened to each passing sound.
A little way before me stood
A blasted tree, whose barren wood
Presented one unvarying gray,
Save a sweet vine that wound its way
Around the melancholy tree.
Like a faint smile it seemed to me,
Upon the visage of despair,
Which fancy had awakened there,
That a sad beauty may impart,
But comes not from the stricken heart.
While, lost in deep and mournful thought,
I mused upon the truth it taught,
Proclaimed the hour I loved the best;
When tempted forth to feel the air,
And join in nature's evening prayer,
With calm delight, I silent strayed
To where an elmtree's graceful shade,
With invitation kind and sweet,
Seemed to present a verdant seat.
There, seated on the fragrant ground,
I listened to each passing sound.
A little way before me stood
A blasted tree, whose barren wood
Presented one unvarying gray,
Save a sweet vine that wound its way
Around the melancholy tree.
Like a faint smile it seemed to me,
Upon the visage of despair,
Which fancy had awakened there,
That a sad beauty may impart,
But comes not from the stricken heart.
While, lost in deep and mournful thought,
I mused upon the truth it taught,
