Around the mighty master came
The marvels which his pencil wrought,
Those miracles of power whose fame
Is wide as human thought.
ASH
Fraxinus
The ash her purple drops forgivingly
And sadly, breaking not the general hush;
The maple swamps glow like a sunset sea,
Each leaf a ripple with its separate flush;
All round the wood's edge creeps the skirting blaze,
Of bushes low, as when, on cloudy days,
Ere the rain falls, the cautious farmer burns his brush.
ASPEN
Populus Tremuloides
What whispers so strange at the hour of midnight,
From the aspen leaves trembling so wildly?
Why in the lone wood sings it sad, when the bright
Full moon beams upon it so mildly?
At that awful hour of the Passion, when the Saviour of the world felt deserted in His agony, when—
And wonder'd how the stars their dying Lord could view"—
when earth, shaking with horror, rung the passing bell for Deity, and universal nature groaned, then from the loftiest tree to the lowliest flower all felt a sudden thrill, and trembling, bowed their heads, all save the proud and obdurate aspen, which said, "Why should we weep and tremble? we trees, and plants, and flowers are pure and never sinned!" Ere it ceased to speak, an involuntary trembling seized its very leaf, and the word went forth that it should never rest, but tremble on until the day of judgment.
Beneath a shivering canopy reclined,
Of aspen leaves that wave without a wind,
I love to he, when lulling breezes stir
The spiry cones that tremble on the fir.
And the wind, full of wantonness, wooes like a
lover
The young aspen-trees till they tremble all over.
Do I? yea, in very truth do I,
An 'twere an aspen leaf.
O had the monster seen those lily hands
Tremble like aspen-leaves, upon a lute.
ASPHODEL
Asphodelus
With her ankles sunken in asphodel
She wept for the roses of earth which fell.
By the streams that ever flow,
By the fragrant winds that blow
O'er the Elysian flow'rs;
By those happy souls who dwell
In yellow mead of asphodel.
ASS
John Trott was desired by two witty peers
To tell them the reason why asses had ears.
"An 't please you," quoth John, "I'm not given to letters;
Nor dare I pretend to know more than my betters:
Howe'er, from this time I shall ne'er see your graces,
As I hope to be saved! without thinking on asses."
He shall be buried with the burial of an ass.
ASSASSINATION (SEE MURDER)
ASTER
Aster
Chide me not, laborious band!
For the idle flowers I brought;
Every aster in my hand
Goes home loaded with a thought.
The Autumn wood the aster knows,
The empty nest, the wind that grieves,
The sunlight breaking thro' the shade,
The squirrel chattering overhead,
The timid rabbits lighter tread
Among the rustling leaves.
The aster greets us as we pass
With her faint smile.
ATHENS
Ancient of days! august Athena! where,
Where are thy men of might? thy grand in soul?
Gone—glimmering through the dream of things that were;
First in the race that led to glory's goal,
They won, and pass'd away—Is this the whole?
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence.
