Page:The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated.djvu/157

91 THE JASMINE TREE.

once sang of a Jasmine tree

That grew beside a castle wall,

The castle where dwelt his ancestry,

And where he is Lord of tower and hall.

And passing sweet was his gentle lay,

Much praising the fair and fragrant Flower,

Which robeth now in its bright array

The grey and ancient Border Tower.

But he deemed that in days of foray rude

The tree could not have flourished there,

When warriors in the court-yard stood,

And trumpets roused the slumb'ring air.

He asked the silv'ry flowers if they

Looked forth as now, when o'er the hill

Moss-troopers rode to feud or fray,

"And bugles blew for belted Will?"

Then said he, that he might not dream

Of deeds that stern old time did see,

While gazing on the starry gleam

Of his own graceful Jasmine tree.

A maiden chanced to hear this lay,

Who, marv'ling much it did not tell