FullReads

L.

“And, lastly, for mirth’s sake and Christmas cheer,
We bear the seedling berries, for increase,
To graft the Druid oaks, from year to year,
Careful that mistletoe may never cease;–
Wherefore, if thou dost prize the shady peace
Of sombre forests, or to see light break
Through sylvan cloisters, and in spring release
Thy spirit amongst leaves from careful ake,
Spare us our lives for the Green Dryad’s sake.”

LI.

Then Saturn, with a frown:–“Go forth, and fell
Oak for your coffins, and thenceforth lay by
Your axes for the rust, and bid farewell
To all sweet birds, and the blue peeps of sky
Through tangled branches, for ye shall not spy
The next green generation of the tree;
But hence with the dead leaves, whene’e they fly,–
Which in the bleak air I would rather see,
Than flights of the most tuneful birds that be.”

LII.

“For I dislike all prime, and verdant pets,
Ivy except, that on the aged wall
Prays with its worm-like roots, and daily frets
The crumbled tower it seems to league withal,
King-like, worn down by its own coronal:–
Neither in forest haunts love I to won,
Before the golden plumage ‘gins to fall,
And leaves the brown bleak limbs with few leaves on,
Or bare–like Nature in her skeleton.”

LIII.

“For then sit I amongst the crooked boughs,
Wooing dull Memory with kindred sighs;
And there in rustling nuptials we espouse,
Smit by the sadness in each other’s eyes;–
But Hope must have green bowers and blue skies,
And must be courted with the gauds of Spring;
Whilst Youth leans god-like on her lap, and cries,
‘What shall we always do, but love and sing?’–
And Time is reckon’d a discarded thing.”

LIV.

Here in my dream it made me fret to see
How Puck, the antic, all this dreary while
Had blithely jested with calamity,
With mis-timed mirth mocking the doleful style
Of his sad comrades, till it raised my bile
To see him so reflect their grief aside,
Turning their solemn looks to have a smile–
Like a straight stick shown crooked in the tide;–
But soon a novel advocate I spied.

LV.

Quoth he–“We teach all natures to fulfil
Their fore-appointed crafts, and instincts meet,–
The bee’s sweet alchemy,–the spider’s skill,–
The pismire’s care to garner up his wheat,–
And rustic masonry to swallows fleet,–
The lapwing’s cunning to preserve her nest,–
But most, that lesser pelican, the sweet
And shrilly ruddock, with its bleeding breast,
Its tender pity of poor babes distrest.”

LVI.

“Sometimes we cast our shapes, and in sleek skins
Delve with the timid mole, that aptly delves
From our example; so the spider spins,
And eke the silk-worm, pattern’d by ourselves:
Sometimes we travail on the summer shelves
Of early bees, and busy toils commence,
Watch’d of wise men, that know not we are elves,
But gaze and marvel at our stretch of sense,
And praise our human-like intelligence.”

LVII.

“Wherefore, by thy delight in that old tale,
And plaintive dirges the late robins sing,
What time the leaves are scatter’d by the gale,
Mindful of that old forest burying;–
As thou dost love to watch each tiny thing,
For whom our craft most curiously contrives,
If thou hast caught a bee upon the wing,
To take his honey-bag,–spare us our lives,
And we will pay the ransom in full hives.”

LVIII.

“Now by my glass,” quoth Time, “ye do offend
In teaching the brown bees that careful lore,
And frugal ants, whose millions would have end,
But they lay up for need a timely store,
And travail with the seasons evermore;
Whereas Great Mammoth long hath pass’d away,
And none but I can tell what hide he wore;
Whilst purblind men, the creatures of a day,
In riddling wonder his great bones survey.”