 | A book of Bristol sonnets |  |
65
THE KNOTTED ELM, AT ABBOT'S LEIGH.
Quaint natured elm, within thy breast must beA touch of human sympathy! Thy blood
Did never else surround thy years of wood
With such strange keepers, such a hideous three!
A bear, a snake, a sloth, all these we see
Couched at thy roots, a scaly-rinded brood,
Who of the thing they champion suck the blood,
And in their watching harmlessly agree!
For men beneath their greenest boughs will grow
A watchful crew of such unnatural breed,
Who coil, and clutch, and on their heart's blood feed,
And fatten at the roots in shade below;
Sloth, Cunning, Greed, who, when bare winters come,
Stand boldly out beneath the cankered home!
| A book of Bristol sonnets | |