 | Weeping-Cross and Other Rimes by A. H. Bullen |  |
23
THE LIME
In childhood's day with wondering delight
I watched you spring so comely, tall, upright:
Methought of all the trees I'd ever seen
Was none whose leaf matched yours for living green.
And when at blossom-tide a fragrance rare
Flew from your flow'ring boughs through trancèd air,
The strange bewitching charm me so amazed
That my weak childish wit was well-nigh crazed.
I watched you spring so comely, tall, upright:
Methought of all the trees I'd ever seen
Was none whose leaf matched yours for living green.
And when at blossom-tide a fragrance rare
Flew from your flow'ring boughs through trancèd air,
The strange bewitching charm me so amazed
That my weak childish wit was well-nigh crazed.
At school I came in Ovid's page to know
Of Baucis and Philemon, long ago
Who high Jove entertain'd and Maia's son,
When poor simplicity rich guerdon won;
For in extreme old age, on selfsame day,
By grace of Jove they put off outworn clay,
And—he to oak, she changed to lime—they stand
By a fair temple in far Phrygian land.
Of Baucis and Philemon, long ago
Who high Jove entertain'd and Maia's son,
When poor simplicity rich guerdon won;
For in extreme old age, on selfsame day,
By grace of Jove they put off outworn clay,
And—he to oak, she changed to lime—they stand
By a fair temple in far Phrygian land.
| Weeping-Cross and Other Rimes by A. H. Bullen | |