Felicia Hemans in The New Monthly Magazine Volume 42 1834/Thoughts Connected with Trees
The New Monthly Magazine, Volume 42, Page 16
XI.
Thoughts connected with Trees.
Trees, gracious trees! how rich a gift ye are,
Crown of the earth! to human hearts and eyes!
How doth the thought of home, in lands afar,
Linked with your forms and kindly whisperings rise?
How the whole picture of a childhood lies
Oft 'midst your boughs forgotten, buried deep,
Till gazing through them up the summer skies,
As hushed we stand, a breeze perchance may creep,
And old sweet leaf-sounds reach the inner world
Where memory coils; and lo! at once unfurled
The past, a glowing scroll, before our sight
Spreads clear! while gushing from their long-sealed urn
Young thoughts, pure dreams, undoubting prayers return,
And a lost mother's eye gives back its hope light.