Thou! noblest of all nature's growth!
Where'er thy foliage falls,
Thy beauty, wed to matchless worth
The willing heart enthralls.
Erst-while the Jewish exiles hung
Their harps thy boughs along
And poured their wearied spirits forth
In strains of plaintive song.
So yet, 'neath shimmer of thy leaves
Roll back the waves of time,
And exiled souls, in dreams return
To far, serener clime.
Before the German peasant's eyes
Thuringian forests bloom;
Whilst ilex of the sunny South
Lights up Italia's gloom.
The English hail their country's oak,
Through which great victories came;
Since naval power, in danger's hour
Sustained old England's fame.
The ebon cross of Erin's Isle
Bedecks her loyal daughters,
In every land, on every strand
Laved by the glittering waters.
Ah! sweetly 'mong the rowan-trees
Ayond the seething brine,
The Scotsman hears loved melodies,
From voices o' langsyne.
A landmark thou in vale of years!
White stone in history!
Loud publisher of private wrongs,
Or nation's victory.
'Neath agèd oak of Elderslie
Five centuries tell the tale
How, at the name of Scotland's Chief
Her enemies turned pale.
An English yew-tree speaks her fate
Who, by a despot's breath
In brilliant beauty graced a throne,
Then sank in shameful death.
Trees note the spot where Bonaparte
Surrendered at Sedan
Ambition's sceptre, framed of guilt
In blood of brother man.
Whilst ever, through the cycling years,
Judea's olive tree
Proclaims the sin-fought conflict gained
On dark Gethsemane.
By soul, that in the greening leaf,
The Great Designer sees,
Sweet whispers from the Living Life
Are heard among the trees.
And every changing summer hue
Which decks the forest band
Low bends in homage grateful hearts
To Him whose faultless hand
Doth sap the seed, and sun the stem,
And rear the structure high;
Till emerald censers incense waft
Through fair, cerulean sky.
Whose artist-touch illumes the doole
Of woodland's waning green,
With flashing streaks of red and gold,
Sunlit of glorious sheen.
So Faith may gaze, with restful eye,
Across this desert wold;
To find the darksome shades of earth
Relieved by Heaven's bright gold.
So Hope may realize that day,
Beside the crystal river,
Where, sheltered by the Tree of Life,
Pure joys flow on forever.