But the struggle back to past contentment and happiness is difficult; and
the "Old Yew" of the churchyard seems to typify his present state of
feeling.
Its roots and fibres stretch downward, and hold the skull and bones of the
dead; like as his thoughts cling to his departed friend. Its "dusk" or
shadow is before the church clock,[6] which strikes the hours of
mortality, and this harmonizes with his life of mourning.
The tree preserves its "thousand years of gloom," unchanged by the seasons
which affect other things--the "old yew" continues always the same--
"And gazing on thee, sullen tree,
Sick for thy stubborn hardihood,
I seem to fail from out my blood,
And grow incorporate into thee."
"Sick for" means, desirous of.
It might seem as if the Poet, whose scientific allusions are always so
striking and correct, had overlooked, when he wrote this Poem, that the
yew bore blossom and seed, like other trees: but it was not so. _Of
course, the Poet always knew, that a tree which bears a berry must have a
blossom; but Sorrow only saw the winter gloom of the foliage._
Observe the recent introduction of Poem xxxix.; also the description, near
the beginning of "The Holy Grail"--
"They sat
Beneath a world-old yew tree, darkening half
The cloisters, on a gustful April morn
That puff'd the swaying branches into smoke.
O, brother, I have seen this yew-tree smoke,
Spring after spring, for half a hundred years."
It will be seen, in the later Poem, how a comparison with the gloomy yew
has been modified.