Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HOLLY TREE, by BAYARD TAYLOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HOLLY TREE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The corn was warm in the ground, the fences were mended and made
Last Line: "he shall master be in the house, and mistress shall be his wife!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Taylor, James Bayard
Subject(s): Holly; Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


I.

THE corn was warm in the ground, the fences were mended and made
And the garden-beds, as smooth as a counterpane is laid,
Were dotted and striped with green where the peas and radishes grew
With elecampane at the foot, and comfrey, and sage, and rue.

II.

The work was done on the farm, 't was orderly everywhere,
And comfort smiled from the earth, and rest was felt in the air.
When a Saturday afternoon at such a time comes round,
The farmer's fancies grow, as grows the grain in his ground.

III.

'T was so with Gabriel Parke: he stood by the holly-tree
That came, in the time of Penn, with his fathers over the sea:
A hundred and eighty years it had grown where it first was set,
And the thorny leaves were thick and the trunk was sturdy yet.

IV.

From the knoll where stood the house the fair fields pleasantly rolled
To dells where the laurels hung, and meadows of butter-cup gold:
He looked on them all by turns, with joy in his acres free,
But ever his thoughts came back to the tale of the holly-tree.

V.

In beautiful Warwickshire, beside the Avon stream,
John Parke, in his English home, had dreamed a singular dream.
He went with a sorrowful heart, for love of a bashful maid,
And a vision came as he slept one day in a holly's shade.

VI.

An angel sat in the boughs, and showed him a goodly land,
With hills that fell to a brook, and forests on either hand,
And said: "Thou shalt wed thy love, and this shall belong to you;
For the earth has ever a home for a tender heart and true!"

VII.

Even so it came to pass, as the angel promised then:
He wedded and wandered forth with the earliest friends of Penn,
And the home foreshown he found, with all that a home endears, --
A nest of plenty and peace, for a hundred and eighty years!

VIII.

In beautiful Warwickshire the life of the two began, --
A slip of the tree of the dream, a far-off sire of the man;
And it seemed to Gabriel Parke, as the leaves above him stirred,
That the secret dream of his heart the soul of the holly heard.

IX.

Of Patience Phillips he thought: she, too, was a bashful maid:
The blue of her eyes was hid by the eyelash's golden shade;
But well that she could not hide the cheeks that were fair to see
As the pink of an apple-bud, ere the blossom snows the tree!

X.

Ah! how had the English Parke to the English girl betrayed,
Save a dream had helped his heart, the love that makes afraid? --
That seemed to smother his voice, when his blood so sweetly ran,
And the baby heart lay weak in the rugged breast of the man?

XI.

His glance came back from the hills and back from the laurel glen,
And fell on the grass at his feet, where clucked a mother-hen,
With a brood of tottering chicks, that followed as best they might;
But one was trodden and lame, and drooped in a woful plight.

XII.

He lifted up from the grass the feeble, chittering thing,
And warmed its breast at his lips, and smoothed its stumpy wing,
When, lo! at his side a voice: "Is it hurt?" was all she said;
But the eyes of both were shy, and the cheeks of both were red.

XIII.

She took from his hand the chick, and fondled and soothed it then,
While, knowing that good was meant, cheerfully clucked the hen;
And the tongues of the two were loosed: there seemed a wonderful charm
In talk of the hatching fowls and spring-work done on the farm.

XIV.

But Gabriel saw that her eyes were drawn to the holly-tree:
"Have you heard," he said, "how it came with the family over the sea?"
He told the story again, though he knew she knew it well,
And a spark of hope, as he spake, like fire in his bosom fell.

XV.

"I dreamed a beautiful dream, here, under the tree, just now,"
He said; and Patience felt the warmth of his eyes on her brow:
"I dreamed, like the English Parke; already the farm I own,
But the rest of the dream is best -- the land is little, alone."

XVI.

He paused, and looked at the maid: her flushing cheek was bent,
And, under her chin, the chick was cheeping its warm content;
But naught she answered -- then he: "O Patience! I thought of you!
Tell me you take the dream, and help me to make it true!"

XVII.

The mother looked from the house, concealed by the window-pane,
And she felt that the holly's spell had fallen upon the twain;
She guessed from Gabriel's face what the words he had spoken were,
And blushed in the maiden's stead, as if they were spoken to her.

XVIII.

She blushed, and she turned away, ere the trembling man and maid
Silently hand in hand had kissed in the holly's shade,
And Patience whispered at last, her sweet eyes dim with dew:
"O Gabriel! could you dream as much as I've dreamed of you?"

XIX.

The mother said to herself, as she sat in her straight old chair:
"He's got the pick of the flock, so tidy and kind and fair!
At first I shall find it hard, to sit and be still, and see
How the house is kept to rights by somebody else than me.

XX.

But the home must be theirs alone: I'll do by her, if I can,
As Gabriel's grandmother did, when I as a wife began:
So good and faithful he's been, from the hour when I gave him life,
He shall master be in the house, and mistress shall be his wife!"





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