WILLOW THEE. 391 



But our cold maids do deadmen's fingers call them : 

 There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 

 Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke ; 

 When down her weedy trophies and herself 

 Fell in the weeping brook*." 



Cowper, speaking of the different hues of trees, says 

 they are 



" paler some, 



And of a wannish gray ; the willow such, 

 And poplar that with silver lines his leaf." 



" Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum, 



To him who muses through the woods at noon ; 

 Or drowsy shepherd, as he lies reclined, 

 With half-shut eyes, beneath the floating shade 

 Of willows grey, close-crowding o'er the brook." 



THOMSON. 



There are several songs in which despairing lovers call 

 upon the Willow tree : 



" Ah, willow ! willow ! 

 The willow shall be 

 A garland for me, 

 Ah, willow ! willow !" 



Chatterton has one, of which the burthen runs 



" Mie love ys dedde, 



Gon to hys deathe-bedde, 

 Al under the wyllowe tree." 



In the Two Noble Kinsmen, said to have been written 

 by Shakespeare and Fletcher, a young girl, who loses 

 her wit with hopeless love for Palamon, 



" She sung 



Nothing but ' Willow ! willow ! willow !' and between 

 Ever was ' Palamon, fair Palamon !" 



* Hamlet, Act iv. Scene 1. 



