No. V.
The Cypress Tree.
A slender tree upon a bank1
In lonely beauty towers,2
So dark, as if it only drank3
The essence of the thunder showers ;4
When birds were at their evening song,5
In thoughtful reverie,6
I’ve marked the shadows deep and long,7
Outstretching from that cypress tree.8
I’ve thought of oriental tombs,9
Of silent cities, where10
In many a row the cypress glooms,11
In token of despair ;12
And thought, beneath the evening star,13
How many a maiden crept14
From busy life’s discordant jar,15
And o’er the tomb in silence wept.16
I’ve thought, thou lonely cypress tree,17
Thou hermit of the grove,18
How many a heart is left like thee19
In loneliness on earth to rove ;20
When all that charmed the early day,21
And cheer’d the youthful mind,22
Have, like the sun-beams, passed away,23
And left but clouded skies behind !24
Thou wert a token unto me,25
Thou stem with dreary leaf,26
So desolate thou seem’st to be,27
That earth is but a home of grief !28
A few short years shall journey by,29
And then thy boughs shall wave,30
When tempests beat, and breezes sigh,31
Above my head, and o’er my grave !32