104 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



the first overwhelming rush of his grief he 

 makes the tree absolutely changeless, which, 

 as he shows later in the poem, it is not. At 

 first he says, apostrophising the yew : — 



O not for thee the glow, the bloom, 

 Who changest not in any gale, 

 Nor branding summer suns avail 



To touch thy thousand years of gloom. 



This is what might be said about the yew by 

 any one who had never observed it closely. But 

 Tennyson did observe closely ; and later in the 

 poem he notes that the yew does change, yet 

 not so as for more than for a brief time to pass 

 from its gloom : — 



Old warder of these buried bones, 



And answering now my random stroke 

 With fruitful cloud and living smoke, 



Dark yew, that graspest at the stones 



And dippest towards the dreamless head. 

 To thee too comes the golden hour 

 When flower is feeling after flower ; 



But Sorrow — fixt upon the dead, 



And darkening the dark graves of men 

 What whispered from her lying lips ? 

 Thy gloom is kindled at the tips. 



And passes into gloom again. 



