Classic Poem

Weirdly to the midnight moon
Voiced the oak his rugged rune:
" Harken, sibyl Moon, to me;
Hear the saga of the Tree.

" Thou, O queen of splendor, must
Pale and crumble back to dust;
Through slow eons diest thou, —
Doomsday craves my vitals now.

" I am scion of a line
Old, imperial, divine;
Earth produced my ancestor
Ere great Odin was, or Thor.

" From the hursts of holy oak
Fateful gods of Asgard spoke;
In the consecrated shade
Bard and Druid sang and prayed.

" Fostered in an oaken womb
Slept Trifingus, sword of doom;
Therewith woaded Caratak
Drave the steel-sarked Roman back.

" Where, profaned by legioned foes,
In the shuddering forest rose
Mona's altars flaming rud,
Britain drowned her woe in blood.

" Then the dread decree of Norn
Sounded in the groves forlorn;
Vikings swooping from the North
Harried every scaur and forth.

" Forests fell with crash and roar,
Masted galiots spurned the shore,
Dragon-breasted, — swum the mere,
Daring danger, scouting fear.

" Hengist's brood and Horsa's kin,
Seed of Garmund, sons of Finn,
Dane and Saxon sail and sweep
Battling o'er the wrathful deep;

" Hearts of oak! their valor gave
Right of might to rule the wave,
Gave to Nelson's ocean war
Copenhagen, Trafalgar!

" Bray of trumpet! roll of drum!
When shall Balder's kingdom come?
Bitter sap shall when grow sweet
In the acorn at my feet?

" Centuries do I stand here,
Thinking thoughts profound and drear,
Dreaming solemn dreams sublime
Of the mysteries of Time.

" Roots of mine do feed on graves;
I have eaten bones of braves;
In the ground the learned gnomes
Read to me their cryptic tomes.

" Annals treasured in the air
All the past to me declare;
Every wind of heaven brings
Tribute for me on its wings.

" Through my silence proud and lone
Whispers waft from the Unknown:
Musing eld hath second ken —
Moon! the dead shall live again.

" Sun-scorch have I borne, and pangs
From the gnaw of winter's fangs;
Fought tornadoes, nor forsook
Roothold when the mountains shook.

" Oft the zigzag thunder hath
Struck me with his fiery scath, —
To my core the havoc sped,
Yet I never bowed my head.

" I am weary of the years;
Overthrown are all my peers,
Slain by steel or storm or flame, —
I would perish too — the same.

" Yet shall I a little space
Linger still in life's embrace,
Ere metempsychosing time
Drag me down to Niflheim.

" Wherefore shun or summon fate?
Wisest they who sanely wait;
In my fiber nature saith,
Life is good and good is death.

" Mated birds of procreant Spring
In my branches build and sing;
Grass is green and flowers bloom
Where I spread my golden gloom;

" Happy children round me play;
Plighted lovers near me stray;
Insects chirping in the night
Thrill me with obscure delight;

" Circling seasons, as they run,
Couriers of the lavish sun,
Dower me with treasure lent
By each potent element;

" Ministers to me the whole
Zoned globe from pole to pole;
In my buds and blossoms beat
Pulses from the central heat; —

" Everything is part of me,
Firmament and moving sea;
I of all that is am part,
Stone and star and human heart.

" Primal Cause etern, self-wrought,
Majesty transcending thought,
This my substance and my soul,
Origin, desire, and goal.

" Through creation's vasty range
Blows the winter blast of change;
Leaf-like from the Life-Tree whirled
World shall rot on ruined world.

" Hail, inexorable hour
Fraught with clysmian wrack and stour!
Welcome, transmutation's course
And the cosmic rage of Force.

" Yond the atomed universe
Now we gather, now disperse, —
Unto darkling chaos tost,
Back from chaos — nothing lost.

" Forth abysmal voids of death
Resurrection issueth: —
Flaming ether, quickened clod,
Bodying new forms of God.

" Harken, Moon! — When I am gone,
I, re-born, shall burgeon on;
Out thine ashes shall arise
Other Thou, to ride the skies. "

Spake no more the hoary oak;
No response the wan moon spoke;
But the poet who had heard
Pondered the Dodonian word.