THE TREE AND THE LADY

I have done all I could

For that lady I knew! Through the heats I have shaded her,

Drawn to her songsters when summer has jaded her,

Home from the heath or the wood.

At the mirth-time of May,

When my shadow first lured her, I'd donned my new bravery

Of greenth:‘ twas my all. Now I shiver in slavery,

Icicles grieving me gray.

Plumed to every twig's end

I could tempt her chair under me. Much did I treasure her

During those days she had nothing to pleasure her;

Mutely she used me as friend.

I'm a skeleton now,

And she's gone, craving warmth. The rime sticks like a skin to me;

Through me Arcturus peers; Nor'lights shoot into me;

Gone is she, scorning my bough!