I am the oldest and the biggest thing
That lives—a link forever lengthening,
That binds the vanished THEN fast to
The fleeting NOW. I grew—
Each ’circling ring bespoke a year,
Recording there
My prospering—or marked perchance
Some hindering of circumstance.
This towering shaft in armored front
Of thickest bark, has borne the brunt
Of frost and flame; it has endured
Through countless plagues and is inured
To all the ravagings
Of crawling things.
My grizzled head has glimpsed the wax
And wane of comets and the tracks
Of trailing meteors; and I
Have watched across the sky
Of time,
Young nations rise and reach their prime
And then grow dim again.
I was a sturdy sapling when
Gray Egypt reared the slave-hewn stones
That hearsed the bones
Of Rameses; and full two thousand folds and more
Had sealed my red heart’s inmost core
When He drew breath—
The Christ of little Nazareth.
[Illustration:
_I am the oldest and the biggest thing
That lives—a link forever lengthening,
That binds the vanished THEN fast to
The fleeting NOW._]
I’ve kept my long-established place
And I am solid—crown to base;
My heart is sound, my bole is straight,
My limbs hang with an even weight,
I do not sag and there is no
Near gully where the freshets flow
To undermine my roots. God planned
It so, and by his grace I’ll stand
Against the centuries still.
So will I fill
My destiny—
To be
A messenger—to carry on, to give
Tomorrow’s children who shall live
When this fair present’s passed away,
The legend of my yesterday.