Holly, Yew and Box 



When winter's darken'd day 



O'er nature's charms bears sway, 



And Flora's beauties fall beneath the blast, 



Oh ! still is to be seen 



Thy everlasting green, 



Delightful and still lovely to the last." 



Shakespere, in As you Like it, says 



" Heigh ho ! sing heigh ho ! unto the green Holly, 

 Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly : 

 Then, heigh ho, the Holly, 

 This life is most jolly." 



Act ii. Sc. 7. 

 (Song "Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind.") 



The Poet Southey takes the variation of 

 leafage on old Hollies for the theme of the follow- 

 ing poem. 



" O, Reader, hast thou ever stood to see 

 The Holly Tree? 



The eye that contemplates it well perceives 

 Its glossy leaves, 



Order'd by an Intelligence so wise 

 As might confound the Atheist's sophistries. 



Below, a circling fence its leaves are seen 



Wrinkled and keen ; 



No grazing cattle through their prickly round 



Can reach to wound ; 



But as they grow where nothing is to fear, 



Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear. 



I love to view these things with curious eyes, 

 And moralise : 



And in this wisdom of the Holly Tree 

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