88 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



Northern modern poet, Tennyson, can refer to 

 the willow with no suggestion of melancholy : — 



Willows whiten, aspens quiver, 

 Little breezes dusk and shiver 

 Thro' the wave that runs for ever 

 By the island in the river 



Flowing down to Camelot. 



But it is in the Old Testament that the note 

 of sadness is already struck, yet for a reason 

 that has no relation to the natural suggestive- 

 ness of the tree — quite the opposite, in fact. 

 The passage hardly needs to be recalled ; but 

 its great beauty invites us to quote it once more : 

 '' By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, 

 we wept, when we remembered Zion. We 

 hanged our harps upon the willows in the 

 midst thereof For there they that carried us 

 away captive required of us a song ; and they 

 that wasted us required of us mirth." It would 

 have been natural to be joyous by the waters 

 of Babylon, which made the country around 

 the great city one of the most fertile regions 

 in the whole world. But the Jews were captives 

 there ; and could not be glad where every- 

 thing most invited to gladness. So the most 

 beautiful place may lose all its fascination for 



