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This Oak points out thy grave; the silent TreeWill gladly stand a monument of thee.
I pray'd for thee, and that thy end were past;And willingly have laid thee here at last:For thou hadst liv'd, till every thing that chearsIn thee had yielded to the weight of years;Extreme old age had wasted thee away,And left thee but a glimmering of the day;Thy ears were deaf; and feeble were thy knees,—I saw thee stagger in the summer breeze,Too weak to stand against its sportive breath,And ready for the gentlest stroke of death.It came, and we were glad; yet tears were shed;Both Man and Woman wept when Thou wert dead;Not only for a thousand thoughts that were,Old household thoughts, in which thou hadst thy share;But for some precious boons vouchsafed to thee,Found scarcely any where in like degree!
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