Page:Poems - Tennyson (1843) - Volume 2 of 2.djvu/92

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THE TALKING OAK.

lxiv.

I kiss it twice, I kiss it thrice,

The warmth it thence shall win
To riper life may magnetise
The baby-oak within.

lxv.

But thou, while kingdoms overset,

Or lapse from hand to hand,
Thy leaf shall never fail, nor yet
Thine acorn in the land.

lxvi.

May never saw dismember thee,

Nor wielded axe disjoint,
That art the fairest-spoken tree
From here to Lizard-point.

lxvii.

O rock upon thy towery top

All throats that gurgle sweet!
All starry culmination drop
Balm-dews to bathe thy feet!