The Tree and the Lady

      I have done all I could
For that lady I knew!  Through the heats I have shaded her,
Drawn to her songsters when summer has jaded her,
   Home from the heath or the wood.



      At the mirth-time of May,
When my shadow first lured her, I'd donned my new bravery
Of greenth:  'twas my all.  Now I shiver in slavery,
   Icicles grieving me gray.
      Plumed to every twig's end
I could tempt her chair under me.  Much did I treasure her
During those days she had nothing to pleasure her;
   Mutely she used me as friend.
      I'm a skeleton now,
And she's gone, craving warmth.  The rime sticks like a skin to me;
Through me Arcturus peers; Nor'lights shoot into me;
   Gone is she, scorning my bough!