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THE ACACIA.
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Written for a flower-book, on the yellow Oriental Acacia, (Acacia Arabica,) as symbolic of the Church in the world, or of Christian beauty and graces. The popular line on this celebrated tree—“Th' Acacia waves her yellow hair”—refers to the long, silky filaments that compose the flower. Some writers, taking their idea solely from the story of the poem to which the above line belongs, have given a symbolic illustration of this tree quite different from the one here employed.
Blooms artless in the lonely wild;
Remote from throngs and public gaze,—
From common love, and vulgar praise.
Her lover, He who formed her fair,
And placed her in the desert,—there
To shine, the beauty of the trees,—
His own peculiar eye to please.
And she to Him is pure and true,
As morning sun and evening dew!
Not with the tear of contrite grief,
Nor for a broken heart's relief,
Are her soft golden locks unbound,—
Her precious odors poured around.
She hath not sinned,—and Innocence
Can show no sign of penitence!
In glad devotion to her Lord,
Her graces shine,—her sweets are poured.
The pilgrim to his hallowed shrine,
Who threads the wild with aim divine,
May find her shade from noontide heat
A soft, refreshing, calm retreat.
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To bathe with balm his burning brow;
And fan, with glorious, wavy bloom,
That patient traveller to the tomb.
On dreary paths in meekness trod,
She blesses man from love to God.
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