Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ELM TREE, by CARROLL RYAN



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ELM TREE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Old giant from the days we call primeval
Last Line: Through hope's bright portal in the happy west.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ryan, William Thomas Carroll
Subject(s): Desolation; Elm Trees; Spring


Old giant from the days we call primeval,
In solitary greatness rooted there;
Lifting thy splendid head in pride coeval
With the dark mountain to the higher air.

A grand old elm, but not an elm tree only,
For in thee dwells the spirit of the years.
The passer sees thee standing vast and lonely—
To him no awful presence there appears.

He does not see the phantoms thee surrounding,
Nor hear the voices from thy branches call,
Nor the low echoes from the rocks resounding;
Thy myst'ry cannot be resolved by all.

But there is one within my father's dwelling,
Who from his window gazes out on thee.
He knows, Old Tree, the tale that thou art telling,
He hears and sees what none else hear or see.

Thou hast a secret, Old Elm, worth the keeping,
We children knew it not in early days;
But they who far beyond thy shade are sleeping
Revealed it to us ere they went their ways.

God pity us who sadly wait with shrinking,
Like one sweet spirit for the falling leaf.
O, Brother, mine! in darkness I am thinking
Of severed branches and a scattered sheaf.

Down the long road that dips into the valley
The love-crowned visions of our youth have fled;
While like lost mariners we keep a tally
Of the sad years in desolation sped.

But O, remember, in these doubtful mazes
There is a fountain by the elm tree blest,
And the weird presence in its branches gazes
Through hope's bright portal in the happy west.





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