The Reliquary By Bernard and Lucy Barton. With A Prefatory Appeal for Poetry and Poets |
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THE UPAS TREE. |
 | The Reliquary |  |
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THE UPAS TREE.
In Java's distant isle there grows a tree that taints the air,
And baneful poison round, it throws on all who wander there;
We pity him compell'd to brave its pestilential breath,
And view him as a wretched slave condemn'd to hopeless death.
And baneful poison round, it throws on all who wander there;
We pity him compell'd to brave its pestilential breath,
And view him as a wretched slave condemn'd to hopeless death.
Yet if we look in many a heart, we find a plant of sin
Whose rankling venom can impart as certain death within:
'Tis discontent! which poisons all that blessings else might be,
And well may truth the spoiler call, the spirit's Upas Tree!
Whose rankling venom can impart as certain death within:
'Tis discontent! which poisons all that blessings else might be,
And well may truth the spoiler call, the spirit's Upas Tree!
| The Reliquary | |