Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Lo! smiling with fruit the gay orchards appear,
Soon the juice shall enliven the glass,
The husbandman welcome the close of the year,
And toast in a bumper his lass.
Hail tree! so reviving to Englishmen's eyes!
What tree upon earth is so fair?
Hail juice! not the grape of Italian skies
With beverage so sweet shall compare.

II

But this tree, tho' Britons now call it their own,
Was brought from a far distant shore,

And, tho' Britain was charm'd, when its value was known,
Still it charm'd other nations before.
But in England there grew a still more lovely tree,
Both the native and pride of the soil,
Of life-giving fruit, and of branches so free,
That they spread, and look'd fair thro' the isle.

III

Lo! the nations, on foliage and fruitage so gay,
While gazing, with envy repin'd,
And a stem, which they seize, bear in triumph away,
To plant under heavens more kind.
The generous exotic, ye nations, receive,
And with patience and industry rear:—
Oh! may its rich nectar from sorrow relieve,
And the children of Poverty cheer!

IV

Proceed, youthful tree, fruit a thousand-fold bear,
Wide and wide be your branches display'd!
And long as its blessings the planters shall share,
Let strangers repose in the shade!
And ye, Britons, rejoice when ye view the blest tree,
As abroad ye may wantonly roam;
But beware, while the sapling looks smiling and free,
Lest the parent tree wither at home.