Classic Poem

BY GEO. B. WALLIS .

My bonnie tree — my bonnie tree,
Ten years have rolled around,
Since thou wert sent to ornament
This consecrated ground.
And then thou wert a little twig,
And I a little wight;
And merrily and cheerily,
From morning until night,
I gamboll'd 'neath thy narrow screen,
Extending now o'er all the green.

That happy day has passed away,
Yet 't is in Memory's store
When I transplanted thee, my tree,
By our grandfather's door:
The clouds in fleet, appeared to meet
Around the glowing west,
And ruddily and prettily,
Old Phaebus sank to rest;
And Night had lit her grand saloon,
When I received my picayune.

I planted thee, my bonnie tree,
In a deep and fertile mould,

And it was fun, when March had gone,
To see thy buds unfold.
And as the Spring would gently bring
Their beauties to the light,
Deliciously, propitiously,
They open'd to the sight;
And thou wert beauteous to be seen,
Array'd in living white and green.

The birds, I thought, that yearly wrought
Their nest among thy boughs,
Sang their sweet hymns among thy limbs,
To win me to repose;
And from their throats the mellow notes
Stole on the passer-by,
Both witchingly and touchingly,
Like music from the sky.
But, hist! even now I think I hear
That music stealing in my ear.

My bonnie tree, my bonnie tree,
Our loved ones all are gone,
Who with me play'd beneath thy shade,
And I am left alone.
I reck not when I may again
Commingle with the earth:
Fate, viciously, maliciously,
Has chased me from my birth.
But live, my tree, and wither'd be
The arm upheld to injure thee.