Poetical Remains of the Late Mrs Hemans/Thoughts connected with Trees

by Felicia Hemans

For other versions of this work, see Records of Passing Thought. XI. Thoughts Connected with Trees.

X.

THOUGHTS CONNECTED WITH TREES.

Trees, gracious trees! how rich a gift ye are,
Crown of the earth! to human hearts and eyes!
How doth the thought of home, in lands afar,
Linked with your forms and kindly whisperings rise!
How the whole picture of a childhood lies
Oft midst your boughs forgotten, buried deep!
Till gazing through them up the summer skies
As hushed we stand, a breeze perchance may creep
And old sweet leaf-sounds reach the inner world
Where memory coils—and lo! at once unfurled
The past, a glowing scroll, before our sight,
Spreads clear! while gushing from their long-sealed urn
Young thoughts, pure dreams, undoubting prayers return,
And a lost mother's eye gives back its holy light.