Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.
Ultima ThulePoems. From my Arm-Chair
Who Presented to Me, on My Seventy-Second Birthday, February 27, 1879, This Chair Made from the Wood of the Village Blacksmith’s Chestnut Tree.
A
This splendid ebon throne?
Or by what reason, or what right divine,
Can I proclaim it mine?
It may to me belong;
Only because the spreading chestnut tree
Of old was sung by me.
When in the summer-time
The affluent foliage of its branches made
A cavern of cool shade.
Its blossoms white and sweet
Enticed the bees, until it seemed alive,
And murmured like a hive.
Tossed its great arms about,
The shining chestnuts, bursting from the sheath,
Dropped to the ground beneath.
Shaped as a stately chair,
Have by my hearthstone found a home at last,
And whisper of the past.
Repel the ocean tide,
But, seated in this chair, I can in rhyme
Roll back the tide of Time.
The blossoms and the bees,
And hear the children’s voices shout and call,
And the brown chestnuts fall.
I hear the bellows blow,
And the shrill hammers on the anvil beat
The iron white with heat!
This day a jubilee,
And to my more than threescore years and ten
Brought back my youth again.
And in it are enshrined
The precious keepsakes, into which is wrought
The giver’s loving thought.
Give life to this dead wood,
And make these branches, leafless now so long,
Blossom again in song.