Samuel Gardner

I who kept the greenhouse,         Lover of trees and flowers,         Oft in life saw this umbrageous elm,         Measuring its generous branches with my eye,         And listened to its rejoicing leaves         Lovingly patting each other         With sweet aeolian whispers.         And well they might:         For the roots had grown so wide and deep         That the soil of the hill could not withhold         Aught of its virtue, enriched by rain,         And warmed by the sun;         But yielded it all to the thrifty roots,         Through which it was drawn and whirled to the trunk,         And thence to the branches, and into the leaves,         Wherefrom the breeze took life and sang.         Now I, an under - tenant of the earth, can see         That the branches of a tree         Spread no wider than its roots.         And how shall the soul of a man         Be larger than the life he has lived?