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The Tree And The Lady

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I have done all I could     For that lady I knew! Through the heats I have shaded her,     Drawn to her songsters when summer has jaded her,      Home from the heath or the wood.      At the mirth-time of May,     When my shadow first lured her, I'd donned my new bravery     Of greenth: 'twas my all. Now I shiver in slavery,      Icicles grieving me gray.      Plumed to every twig's end     I could tempt her chair under me. Much did I treasure her     During those days she had nothing to pleasure her;      Mutely she used me as friend.      I'm a skeleton now,     And she's gone, craving warmth. The rime sticks like a skin to me;     Through me Arcturus peers; Nor'lights shoot into me;      Gone is she, scorning my bough!

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"I have done all I could..."

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