FROM out the topmost bulb — a budding sentry — A leaflet spread its green against the blue; The songsters heralded its earthly entry And it was christened in the morning's dew. All through the summer, on an oak that towered, A stately captain of his lordly kind, It fanned the birdlings in their nest embowered, Or from their housing turned the churlish wind. Then autumn chanting came, in vestments sober, Bearing the cup of dissolution's lees; Forth in the majesty of hazed October, A withered leaf was hearsed upon the breeze. |