POETS Yt. 991 
Time was, when settling on thy leaf, a fly 
Could shake thee to the root—and time has been 
‘When tempests could not. At thy firmest age 
Thou hadst within thy bole solid contents 
That might have ribb’d the sides, and plank’d-the deck 
Of some flagg’d admiral, and tortuous arms, 
The shipwright’s darling treasure, didst present 
To the four quarter’d winds, robust and bold, 
Warp’d into tough knee timber,* many a load} 
But the axe spared thee ; in those thriftier days 
Oaks fell not, hewn by thousands, to supply 
The bottomless demands of contest, waged 
For senatorial honours. Thus to time 
The task was left to whittle thee away, 
With his sly scythe, whose ever-nibbling edge, 
Noiseless, an atom, and an atom more, 
Disjoining from the rest, has unobserv’d 
Achiew’d a labour, which had far and wide, 
(By man perform’d) made all the forest ring. 
Embowell’d now, and of thy ancient self 
Possessing hought, but the scop’d rind, that seems 
An huge throat calling to the clouds for drink, 
Which it would give in rivulets to thy root ; 
Thou temptest none, but rather much forbid’st 
The feller’s toil, which thou could’st ill requite : 
Yet is thy root sincere, sound as the rock, 
A quarry of stout spurs, and knotted fangs, 
Which, crook’d into a thousand whimsies, clasp 
The stubborn soil, and hold thee still erect. 
So stands a kingdom, whose foundation yet 
Fails not, in virtue and in wisdom lay’d, 
Though all the superstruéture, by the tooth 
Pulveriz’d of venality, a shell 
Stands now—and semblance only of itself! 
Thine arms have left thee ; winds have rent them off 
Long since, and rovers of the forest wild, 
With bow and shaft, have burnt them. Some have left 
A splinter’d stump, bleach’d to a snowy white ; 
And some, memorial none where once they grew. — 
Yet life still lingers in thee, and puts forth 
Proof not contemptible of what she can, 
Even when death predominates. ‘The spring 
Finds thee not less alive to her sweet force, 
5 Than 
* Knee timber is found in the crooked arms of oak, which, by reason of their 
peertion, are easily adjusted to the angle formed where the’ deck and ship sides 
ect. 
