Poem by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The Hollow Oak

Hollow is the oak beside the sunny waters drooping;
Thither came, when I was young, happy children trooping;
Dream I now, or hear I now--far, their mellow whooping?

Gay below the cowslip bank, see the billow dances,
There I lay beguiling time--when I lived romances;
Dropping pebbles in the wave, fancies into fancies;--

Farther, where the river glides by the wooded cover,
Where the merlin singeth low, with the hawk above her
Came a foot and shone a smile--woe is me, the Lover!

Leaflets on the hollow oak still as greenly quiver,
Musical amid the reeds murmurs on the river;
But the footstep and the smile?--woe is me for ever!

1. On the Reperusal of Letters Written in Youth
2. Trevylyan to Gertrude
3. The Pilgrim of the Desert
4. The Loyalty of Love
5. The First Violets

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