O reader! hast thou ever stood to see <br />The Holly-tree? <br />The eye that contemplates it well perceives <br />Its glossy leaves <br />Ordered by an Intelligence so wise <br />As might confound the Atheist's sophistries. <br /> <br />Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen, <br />Wrinkled and keen; <br /> <br />No grazing cattle, through their prickly round, <br />Can reach to wound; <br />But, as they grow where nothing is to fear, <br />Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear. <br /> <br />I love to view these things with curious eyes, <br />And moralize; <br />And in this wisdom of the Holly-tree <br />Can emblem see <br />Wherewith, perchance, to make a pleasant rhyme, - <br />One which may profit in the after-time. <br /> <br />Thus, though abroad, perchance, I might appear <br />Harsh and austere; <br />To those who on my leisure would intrude, <br />Reserved and rude; <br />Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be, <br />Like the high leaves upon the Holly-tree. <br /> <br />And should my youth - as youth is apt, I know, - <br />Some harshness show, <br />All vain asperities I, day by day, <br />Would wear away, <br />Till the smooth temper of my age should be <br />Like the high leaves upon the Holly-tree. <br /> <br />And as, when all the summer trees are seen <br />So bright and green, <br />The Holly-leaves their fadeless hues display <br />Less bright than they; <br />But when the bare and wintry woods we see, <br />What then so cheerful as the Holly-tree? - <br /> <br />So, serious should my youth appear among <br />The thoughtless throng; <br />So would I seem, amid the young and gay, <br />More grave than they; <br />That in my age as cheerful I might be <br />As the green winter of the Holly-tree.<br /><br />Robert Southey<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-holly-tree/
