Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HOPIA TREE; PLANTED OVER THE GRAVE OF MRS. ANN H. JUDSON, by LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HOPIA TREE; PLANTED OVER THE GRAVE OF MRS. ANN H. JUDSON, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Rest! Rest! - the hopia tree is green
Last Line: Beneath the hopia tree.
Subject(s): Graves; Judson, Ann Hasseltine (1789-1826); Missions & Missionaries; Trees; Tombs; Tombstones


"REST! Rest! -- the Hopia tree is green,
And proudly waves its leafy screen,
Thy lowly bed above,
And by thy side, no more to weep,
Thine infant shares the gentle sleep,
Thy youngest bud of love.

"How oft its feeble wailing cry
Detain'd unseal'd thy watchful eye,
And pain'd that parting hour
When pallid death, with stealthy tread,
Descried thee on thy fever-bed,
And proved his fatal power.

"Ah! do I see with faded charm,
Thy head reclining on thine arm,
The Teacher far away?
But now, thy mission-labors o'er,
Rest, weary clay, to wake no more,
Till the Great Rising-Day."

Thus spake the traveller, as he staid
His step within that sacred shade,
A man of God was he,
Who his Redeemer's glory sought,
And paused to woo the holy thought
Beneath that Hopia tree.

The Salwen's tide went rushing by,
And Burmah's cloudless moon was high,
With many a solemn star;
And while he mus'd methought there stole
An angel's whisper o'er his soul,
From that pure clime afar,

Where swells no more the heathen sigh,
Nor 'neath the idol's stony eye
Dark sacrifice is done,
And where no more, by prayers and tears,
And toils of agonising years,
The martyr's crown is won.

Then visions of the faith that blest
The dying saint's rejoicing breast,
And set the pagan free,
Came thronging on, serenely bright,
And cheer'd the traveller's heart that night,
Beneath the Hopia tree.





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