7. THE OAK. "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?" COME take a woodland walk with me, And mark the rugged old Oak Tree, How steadily his arm he flings Where from the bank the fresh rill springs, And points the waters' silent way Down the wild maze of reed and spray. Two furlongs on they glide unseen, There stands he, in each time and tide, He holds his root in faith and power, The Oak. Mark'st thou in him no token true Of heaven's own Priests, both old and new, In penitential garb austere Fix'd in the wild, from year to year 213 8. THE PALM. "Palma virens semper manet conservatione et diuturnitate, non immutatione foliorum."-St. Ambrose, Hexaemeron, iii. 71. WHY of all the woodland treasure, Holy Palm, art thou preferred, When the voice of praise is heard, Is it for thy verdure, brightest In the zone of colours bright? Or that with aërial height Thou the genial clime requitest, Like courageous mountain maid, Nor of sun nor air afraid? The Palm. Is it that in antique story Conquerors own'd thee for their meed? For thy green unchanging glory, Pines may tower, and laurels flourish- 215 9. THE WATERFALL. "Ye also as lively stones, are built up, a spiritual House." "I will make thy seed as the dust of the Earth." "WHAT is the Church, and what am I? A world, to one poor sandy grain, A waste of sea and sky To one frail drop of rain. "What boots one feeble infant tone Are chanting, morn and even ?” Nay, the kind Watchers hearkening there Distinguish in the deep of song Each little wave, each air Upon the faltering tongue. |