Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A DREAM ABOUT THE ASPEN, by GEORGE MURRAY (1830-1910)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A DREAM ABOUT THE ASPEN, by                    
First Line: Oh! Know ye why the aspen leaves so tremulously / sigh
Last Line: "that ""they who shut love out shall be in turn shut out from love."
Subject(s): Aspen Trees; Crucifixion; Trees; Jesus Christ - Crucifixion


Oh! know ye why the aspen leaves so tremulously sigh
When through the burning summer noon no breeze is heard on high,
When the green canopies that crown the woodlands are at rest,
And gladden faint wayfaring men with shadows calm and blest?
In the dread hour when God's own Son upon the Cross was nailed,
The fierce red splendour of the sun in midnight gloom was veiled,
Earth's bosom heaved, and girt around with darkness deep and still
Men bowed, like frail wind-shaken reeds, before God's mighty will.
With dim presentiment of woe, each beast concealed his form,
And shrank within his cavern-home, as though beneath a storm;
No bird-wing fluttered in the grove, or floated through the air,
And Nature's heart had ceased to beat, wrung deeply by despair,
Save that the shrouded trees and flowers still murmured low in thought,
And wailing told of deeds of blood and justice set at nought,
Of bigot priests and traitor hearts and faith for silver bought.

The cedar groves on Lebanon a dirge-like music made,
And dark as night athwart the hills was flung their giant shade;
While softly from a weeping tree, the tree of Babylon;
A voice in lonely whisper sighed, "'Tis finished—He is gone!"
Then deeply down she hung her boughs within Euphrates' stream
And ever dreameth of His death a life-enduring dream.
Calmly beneath the eye of heaven the glowing vineyards slept,
The vintner watched the big bright tears that from the branches wept,
And when the purple clusters dropped and the new wine was prest,
Mindful he named it "Tears of Christ," and still that name is blest.

But soon a vapour round the Mount arose with fragrant flow,
Breathed from the very soul of Love compassionating Woe,
By the night-blooming violet to cool the burning brain
Of Him whose thorn-encircled brow throbbed wildly in its pain.
Mournfully spake the cypress then, "My branches I will wave
In memory of this awful hour for ever by the grave;"
And through the sultry dimness passed a gently-wafted breath,
As to the Cross an Angel moved, stern messenger of death;
A sad voice groaned: "My God! my God! why hast thou me forsaken?"
And all the trees and flowers with fear and agony were shaken.

The Aspen shook not: she alone, a proud unpitying tree,
Stood tearless, motionless beside the Mount of Calvary,
And thus outspake that haughty one: "What reck we of thy pain?
Why should we weep? We trees and flowers are free from sinful stain:
Soon will my sisters cease to pine—this hour will soon be o'er—
A bright epiphany of joy shall beam for evermore."

Then Death's dark Angel took the cup, red with the Saviour's blood,
And at the cold proud Aspen's root poured forth the mystic flood,
And spake strange words, and by those words the miserable tree
Was cursed, and every leaf was doomed a quivering leaf to be;
And till that old, old curse be dead, her branches cannot rest,
But still she feareth, trembleth still, when all is calm and blest.
Scorn not the tale! Those thoughts were born within a child-like heart,
E'en as the tears that in our eyes so oft unbidden start—
Born like the strains that gush from out the forest-warbler's breast,
That soft or shrill are bird-song still and may not be represt.
Then scoff not at the simple tale, nor deem the legend wild,
It was not woven that the ears of men might be beguiled,
But that men's eyes might trace the form of Truth in Fiction's stream
And read a world-old, God-framed law foreshadowed in a dream.

Slowly 'tis learnt by heart, although by memory quickly caught—
Faintly 'tis writ in tears upon the tablets of the thought—
Still; still that law of exile lives—the ban of Heaven above—
That "they who shut Love out shall be in turn shut out from Love."





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