Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 1, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/90

38 THE THORN.

I.

There is a thorn; it looks so old,

In truth you'd find it hard to say,

How it could ever have been young,

It looks so old and grey.

Not higher than a two years' child

It stands erect this aged thorn;

No leaves it has, no thorny points;

It is a mass of knotted joints,

A wretched thing forlorn.

It stands erect, and like a stone

With lichens it is overgrown.