CYPRESS TREE. 



119 



All things th' uiipartial hand of fate 



Can rase out with a thought : 

 These have a several fixed date. 

 Which ended, turne to nought. 

 Yet shall my truest cause 

 Of sorrow firmly stay, 

 When these effects the wings of time 

 Shall fanne and sweepe away." 



W. Browne's Shepherd's Pipe. 



Montgomery would rather associate more pleasing 

 ideas with the memory of a departed friend : 



To some warm heart the poorest dust was dear. 



From some kind eye the meanest claimed a tear ; 



And oft' the living, by affection led^ 



Were v/ont to walk in spirit with their dead. 



Where no dark cypress cast a doleful gloom. 



No blighting yew shed poison o'er the tomb. 



But, white and red with intermingUng flowers : 



Green myrtle fenced it, and beyond their bound, 



Ran the clear rill with ever murmuring sound. 



'Twas not a scene for grief to nourish care. 



It breathed of hope, and moved the heart to prayer." 



WorU before the Flood. 



The origin of the Cypress-tree, and the reason of its 

 association with ideas of gloom and death, is mentioned 

 by Ovid : 



" Dear to the god, who awes, yet charms the throng. 

 Who strings the bow for war, the harp for song. 

 Thither, a youth of yore, but now a shade. 

 Small by degrees, the mournful cypress strayed. 



A giant-stag once coursed Carthoea's glades. 

 Admired, nay worshipped, by the sylvan maids : 

 Antlers of gold rose glittering on his head. 

 Round his sleek throat a chain of jewels spread 

 Fell on his shoulder ; fixed by leathern ties, 

 A ball of silver played between his eyes. 



