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II
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it, and the moss hung down
from the
branches,
Without any companion it grew there,
glistening out with
joyous leaves of
dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made
me think of
myself;
But I wondered how it could utter joyous
leaves, standing alone
there without its
friend, its lover-
-For I knew I could
not;
And I plucked a twig with a certain number
of leaves upon it,
and twined around it
a little moss, and
brought it away —
And I have placed
it in sight in my
room, |
 |
It is not needed to remind me as of my
friends, (for I believe
lately I think of
little else than of
them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token - it
makes me think of manly love, I write
these
pieces and
name them after it ;
For all that, and though the treelive
oak
glistens there in
Louisiana, solitary in a
wide flat space, uttering
joyous leaves
all its life, without
a friend, a lover,
near - I know very
well I could not. |