Jenks' Portland Gazette

Miscellaneous.

The following fragment of a poem addressed
By Cowper to a very ancient and decayed Oak
in the vicinity of Weston, is full of the conceptions
of a vigorous and poetical fancy, expressed
in nervous and familiar language.

[Post Boy]

Thou wast a bauble once; a cup and ball,
Which babes might play with; and the thievish jay,
Seeking her food, with ease might have purloined
The auburn nut that held thee, swallowing down
Thy yet close folded latitude of boughs,
And all thine embryo vanities, at a gulp.
But fate thy growth decreed: autumnal rains,
Beneath thy parent tree, mellowed the soil
Designed thy cradle, and a skipping deer,
With pointed hoof dibbling the glebe, prepared
The soft receptacle, in which secure
Thy rudiments should sleep the winter through.
Time made thee what thou wast - King of the woods.
And time hath made thee what thou art - a cave
For owls to roost in! Once thy spreading boughs
O'erhung the champaign, and the numerous flock
That grazed it, stood beneath that ample cope
Uncrowded, yet safe sheltered from the storm.
No flock frequents thee now; thou hast outlived
Thy popularity, and art become
(Unless verse raise thee awhile) a thing
Forgotten, as the foliage of thy youth.