Compensation
I
Life of my life, do you remember how,
At our fair pleasance gate, a stately tree
Kept silent watch and ward? Majestic, free,
Its head reached heaven, while its lowest bough
Swept the green turf, and all between was row
On row of crested waves—a sleeping sea—
Or heaving billows tossed tumultuously,
When the fierce winds that smote the mountain’s brow
Lashed it to sudden passion. It was old.
Storm-rocked for many centuries, it had grown
One with the hills, the river and the sod;
Yet young it was, with largess of red gold
For every autumn, and from stores unknown
Bringing each springtime treasure-trove to God.
II
Then came a night of terror and dismay,
Uproar and lightning, with the furious sweep
Of mighty winds, that raged from steep to steep,
And ere it passed the great tree prostrate lay!
Sleepless I mourned until the morning gray;
Then forth I crept, as one who goes to keep
Watch by his dead, too heartsick even to weep,
And hardly daring to behold the day.
Lo! what vast splendor met my startled eyes,
What unimagined space, what vision wide!
Turrets and domes, now blue, now softest green,
In one unbroken circuit kissed the skies;
While, veiled in soft clouds, radiant as a bride,
Shone one far sapphire peak till then unseen!