I HOVER with unsettled wing, And pluck a branch from bygone time, And bear it with me to a clime That ever shews a budding spring. I plant it in a likely ground, And watch it with unsleeping care; And pray the blighting breath to spare, The sun to shed its beams around : And well they do, and in return To me it brings both fruit and flower ; And to a troubled mind the power All meaner things to pass and spurn. But yet it brings nor flower nor fruit To him that will not court its shade; For him alone its beauty made Who loves to tend its earliest shoot; B |