238 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



" Fair Simoisius, whom his mother bore 

 Amid the flocks on silver Simois' shore ; 

 Short was his fate ! By dreadful Ajax slain, 

 He falls, and renders all their cares in vain ! 

 So falls a poplar, that in watery ground 

 Raised high the head with stately branches crowned, 

 (Felled by some artist with his shining steel, 

 To shape the circle of the bending wheel.) 

 Cut down it lies, tall, smooth, and largely spread, 

 With all its beauteous honours on its head ; 

 There, left a subject to the wind and rain, 

 And scorched by suns, it withers on the plain. 

 Thus pierced by Ajax, Simoisius lies, 

 Stretched on the shore, and thus neglected dies." 



This description alludes, most probably, to our brother 

 the aspiring Lombardy or Po poplar, which rises to an 

 astonishing height on the plains of Italy, and rivals the 

 far-famed cypress in its majestic simplicity. This tree was 

 deemed sacred to Hercules, ' ' populus Alcidse gratissima," 

 and was considered as an emblem of courage, according 

 to the legend which assigns to Hercules the vanquishing 

 of his enemy in a poplar grove, but more probably because 

 he destroyed the monster with a massive poplar trunk 



