Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
Lines Written under a Drawing of Yardley Oak
By James Montgomery (17711854)T
Of giant oaks, where once the wood
Rang with the battle or the chase,
In stern and lonely grandeur stood.
Its gradual boughs to sun and wind;
From age to age its noble head
As slowly withered and declined.
When fled; no longer known than seen:
This tree was doomed to pass away,
And be as if it ne’er had been;
For rest beneath its shadow came,
When, lo! the voice of days gone by
Ascended from its hollow frame.
The words of those prophetic strains,
Ere death the eternal mystery sealed!
Yet in his song the oak remains.
There may it live, beyond the power
Of storm and earthquake, man and time,
Till nature’s conflagration-hour.