










252 POETRY OF FLOWERS. 
THE HOLLY TREE. 
O Reape! hast thou ever stood to see 
The Holly tree? 
The eye that contemplates it well, perceives 
Its glossy leaves, 
Ordered by an Intelligence so wise 
As might confound the atheist’s sophistries. 
3elow a circling fence its leaves are seen, 
Wrinkled and keen ; 
No grazing cattle through their prickly round 
Can reach to wound ; 
But, as they grow where nothing is to fear, 
Smooth andunarm’d the pointless leaves appear. 
I love to view these things, with curious eye,s 
And moralize ; 
And, in this wisdom of the Holly tree, 
Can emblems see, 
Wherewith perchancetomake apleasantrhyme, 
One which may profit in after-time. 
Thus, though abroad, perchance, I might appear 
Harsh and austere, 
To those who on my leisure would intrude, 
Reserved and rude, 

perpen: Mle rrr 
