The Poetical Works of William Motherwell/The Lone Thorn

by William Motherwell

The Lone Thorn.

 

Beneath the scant shade of an aged thorn,
Silvered with age, and mossy with decay,
I stood, and there bethought me of its mom
Of verdant lustyhood, long passed away;
Of its meridian vigour, now outworn
By cankering years, and by the tempest's sway
Bared to the pitying glebe.—Companionless,
Stands the gray thorn complaining to the wind—
Of all the old wood's leafy loveliness
The sole memorial that lags behind;
Its compeers perished in their youthfulness,
Though round the earth their roots seem'd firmly twined:
How sad it is to be so anchored here
As to outlive one's mates, and die without a tear!