CYPRESS TREE. 



121 



Cowley refers to this poetical origin of the tree, in his 

 lines on the death of Mrs. Hervey : 



" Instead of bays, crown with sad cypress me. 

 Cypress which tombs doth beautify : 

 Not Phoebus grieved so much as I, 

 For him who first was made that mournful tree." 



Sannazaro alludes to it also : 



Ma fra tutti nel mezzo, presso un chiaro fonte, sorge' verso il 

 cielo un dritto cipresso, veracissimo imitatore delle alte mete, nel 

 quale non che Ciparisso, ma (se dir conviensi) esso Apollo non si 

 sdegnarebbe essere trasfigurato." 



Arcadia. 



But in the midst of all, near a clear fountain, rose towards heaven 

 a straight cypress, lofty, pyramidal ; to such a tree, not Cyparissus 

 only, but if we so may speak, Apollo's self, need not disdain to be 

 transformed. 



Tasso describes the form of its growth : 



Alfine un largo spazio in forma scorge 

 D'anfiteatro, e non e pianta in esso 

 Salvo che nel suo mezzo altero sorge 

 Quasi eccelsa piramide, un cipresso." 



At length a spacious valley he descried. 

 In which grew nothing but a cypress- tree. 

 That, in the centre, rose with stately pride. 

 Of form pyramidal : 



Mr. Shelley gives a grand and striking picture of the 

 Cypress-tree : 



" Thence to a lonely dwelHng, where the shore 

 Is shadowed with steep rocks, and cypresses 

 Cleave with their dark green cones the silent skies^. 

 And with their shadows the clear depths below," 



