Destroyers and Other Verses/Hid From Sight of Pasture Lands

by Henry Head

 

He . . .

Hid from sight of pasture lands,Behind the Church a yew-tree stands,Banished from the cheerful fields,For the deadly fruit it yields.

Year by year it waxes tall,Hemmed within the Church-yard wall;For the Church must ever keepPoisoned fruit from silly sheep.

Without a knot its branches grow,Each to form a yeoman's bow,Evergreen and never old,For they spring from churchyard mould.

A solitary from the throng,I fashion weapons for the strong:But every thought within my headHas its roots among the dead.