"England and Yesterday": A Book of Short Poems

Chapter 44: THE YEW-TREE.

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About This Book

The collection gathers sonnets and shorter lyrics that observe English locales, chiefly London and Oxford, and move between public bustle and quiet precincts. Urban pieces register fog, crowds, docks, and social inequality alongside civic and ecclesiastical history; Oxford poems and pastoral lyrics dwell on college gardens, ancient churches, and memory. The verse balances formal sonnet discipline with lyrical interludes, employing vivid sensory detail and reflective, often elegiac tone. Recurring concerns include transience, the persistence of historical presence, spiritual consolation, and a moral awareness of poverty and beauty.

THE YEW-TREE.

As I came homeward

At merry Christmas,

By the old church tower,

Through the churchyard grass,

And saw there, circled

With graves all about,

The yew-tree paternal,

The yew-tree devout,

Then this hot life-blood

Was hard to endure,

O Death! so I loved thee,

The sole love sure.

For stars slip in heaven,

They wander, they break:

But under the yew-tree

Not one heartache.

And ours, what failure

Renewed and avowed!

But ah, the long-buried

Is leal, and is proud.

Now I came homeward

At merry Christmas,

By the wise gray tower,

Through the green kind grass.