The Tree’s Prayer + 

Alas, ’tis cold and dark! + 

The wind all night hath sung a wintry tune! + 

Hail from black clouds that swallowed up the moon + 

Beat, beat against my bark. + 

Oh! why delays the spring? + 

Not yet the sap moves in my frozen veins; + 

Through all my stiffened roots creep numbing pains, + 

That I can hardly cling. + 

The sun shone yester-morn; + 

I felt the glow down every fibre float, + 

And thought I heard a thrush’s piping note + 

Of dim dream-gladness born. + 

Then, on the salt gale driven, + 

The streaming cloud hissed through my outstretched arms, + 

Tossed me about in slanting snowy swarms, + 

And blotted out the heaven. + 

All night I brood and choose + 

Among past joys. Oh, for the breath of June! + 

The feathery light-flakes quavering from the moon + 

The slow baptizing dews! + 

Oh, the joy-frantic birds!⁠— + 

They are the tongues of us, mute, longing trees! + 

Aha, the billowy odours! and the bees + 

That browse like scattered herds! + 

The comfort-whispering showers + 

That thrill with gratefulness my youngest shoot! + 

The children playing round my deep-sunk root, + 

Green-caved from burning hours! + 

See, see the heartless dawn, + 

With naked, chilly arms latticed across! + 

Another weary day of moaning loss + 

On the thin-shadowed lawn! + 

But icy winter’s past; + 

Yea, climbing suns persuade the relenting wind: + 

I will endure with steadfast, patient mind; + 

My leaves will come at last! + 