OUR CASUARINA TREE Toru Dutt Poem SCHOOL 12th - - Our Casuarina Tree Page But not because of its magnificence Dear is the Casuarina to my soul: Beneath it we have played; though years may roll, O sweet companions, loved with love intense, For your sakes, shall the tree be ever dear. Blent with your images, it shall arise In memory, till the hot tears blind mine eyes! What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear Like the sea breaking on a shingle -beach? It is the tree’s lament, an eerie speech, That haply to the unknown land may reach.
Unknown, yet well-known to the eye of faith! Ah, I have heard that wail far, far away In distant lands, by many a sheltered bay, When slumbered in his cave the water -wraith And the waves gently kissed the classic shore Of France or Italy, beneath the moon, When earth lay trancèd in a dreamless swoon: And every time the music rose, - before Mine inner vision rose a form sublime , Thy form, O Tree, as in my happy prime I saw thee, in my own loved native clime. Therefore I fain would consecrate a lay Unto thy honor, Tree, beloved of those Who now in blessed sleep for aye repose, - Dearer than life to me, alas, were they! Mayst thou be numbered when my days are done With deathless trees - like those in Borrowdale, Under whose awful branches lingered pale “Fear, trembling Hope, and Death, the skeleton, And Time the shadow;” and though weak the verse That would thy beauty fain, oh, fain rehearse , May Love defend thee from oblivion’s curse.
Our Casuarina Tree Page 12th - - Page gallantly - bravely or heroically repose - a state of rest casement - a type of window that is fixed on one side and opens like a door baboon - a type of large monkey found in Africa and Asia kokilas - a type of bird similar to the cuckoo wend - stroll hoar - white frost deposits on