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Poems

By Edward Quillinan. With a Memoir by William Johnston

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FIELD-FOOT CEDAR. III.
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66

FIELD-FOOT CEDAR. III.

On Indus' banks and Ganges,' near the fane
Wherein sits Deva on his mystic throne,
The Brahmin sows the Deodarean cone;
And crouching myriads—for whose sires, in vain
A warning voice proclaim'd Messiah's reign,
Hereditary thralls to stock and stone—
Revere their God-tree in the seed thus sown.
Grow thou, secure from ministry insane.—
An English river near a purer shrine,
Flows by the rocks that will protect thy youth,
And thou art planted here but to record
A date that cleaves to sympathies benign
In hearts that trust the promise of the Word,
And rest their solace on Eternal Truth.
 

The Pinus Deodara, the Cedar of India, is held as “a sacred tree by the natives, deodara meaning the tree of Siva or Deva, who is one of the most important divinities in the Hindû Mythology. As the tree of the Gods, the deodara is planted near the Indian temples, and comes in for a share of the worship.”

Frances Xavier, Missionary of the East in 1547, was popularly styled “the Apostle of India.”