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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HOLLY TREE, by ROBERT SOUTHEY Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: O reader! Hast thou ever stood to see Last Line: As the green winter of the holly-tree. Subject(s): Holly; Trees | |||
O READER! hast thou ever stood to see The holly-tree? The eye that contemplates it well perceives Its glossy leaves Ordered by an intelligence so wise As might confound the atheist's sophistries. Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen Wrinkled and keen; No grazing cattle, through their prickly round, Can reach to wound; But as they grow where nothing is to fear, Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear. I love to view these things with curious eyes, And moralize; And in this wisdom of the holly-tree Can emblems see Wherewith, perchance, to make a pleasant rhyme, One which may profit in the after-time. Thus, though abroad, perchance, I might appear Harsh and austere; To those who on my leisure would intrude, Reserved and rude; Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be, Like the high leaves upon the holly-tree. And should my youth -- as youth is apt, I know -- Some harshness show, All vain asperities I, day by day, Would wear away, Till the smooth temper of my age should be Like the high leaves upon the holly-tree. And as, when all the summer trees are seen So bright and green, The holly-leaves their fadeless hues display Less bright than they; But when the bare and wintry woods we see, What then so cheerful as the holly-tree? So, serious should my youth appear among The thoughtless throng; So would I seem, amid the young and gay, More grave than they; That in my age as cheerful I might be As the green winter of the holly-tree. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PROBLEM OF DESCRIBING TREES by ROBERT HASS THE GREEN CHRIST by ANDREW HUDGINS MIDNIGHT EDEN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN REFLECTION OF THE WOOD by LEONIE ADAMS THE LIFE OF TREES by DORIANNE LAUX BISHOP BRUNO by ROBERT SOUTHEY |
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