The Blossoming of the Solitary Date Tree[;] A Lament

I seem to have an indistinct recollection of having read either in one of the ponderous tomes of George of Venice, or in some other compilation from the uninspired Hebrew writers, an apologue or Rabbinical tradition to the following purpose:

While our first parents stood before their offended Maker, and the last words of the sentence were yet sounding in Adam's ear, the guileful false serpent, a counterfeit and a usurper from the beginning, presumptuously took on himself the character of advocate or mediator, and pretending to intercede for Adam, exclaimed: 'Nay, Lord, in thy justice, not so! for the man was the least in fault. Rather let the Woman return at once to the dust, and let Adam remain in this thy Paradise.' And the word of the Most High answered Satan: 'The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Treacherous Fiend! if with guilt like thine, it had been possible for thee to have the heart of a Man, and to feel the yearning of a human soul for its counterpart, the sentence, which thou now counsellest, should have been inflicted on thyself.'

The title of the following poem was suggested by a fact mentioned by Linnaeus, of a date-tree in a nobleman's garden which year after year had put forth a full show of blossoms, but never produced fruit, till a branch from another date-tree had been conveyed from a distance of some hundred leagues. The first leaf of the MS. from which the poem has been transcribed, and which contained the two or three introductory stanzas, is wanting: and the author has in vain taxed his memory to repair the loss. But a rude draught of the poem contains the substance of the stanzas, and the reader is requested to receive it as the substitute. It is not impossible, that some congenial spirit, whose years do not exceed those of the Author at the time the poem was written, may find a pleasure in restoring the Lament to its original integrity by areduction of the thoughts to the requisite metre.

S. T. C.

1. 1Beneath the blaze of a tropical sun the mountain peaks are
2. 2the Thrones of Frost, through the absence of objects to reflect
3. 3the rays. 'What no one with us shares, seems scarce our own.'
4. 4The presence of a ONE,

1. 5The best belov'd, who loveth me the best,

1. 6is for the heart, what the supporting air from within is for the
2. 7hollow globe with its suspended car. Deprive it of this, and all
3. 8without, that would have buoyed it aloft even to the seat of the gods,
4. 9becomes a burthen and crushes it into flatness.

1. 10The finer the sense for the beautiful and the lovely, and the
2. 11fairer and lovelier the object presented to the sense; the more
3. 12exquisite the individual's capacity of joy, and the more ample
4. 13his means and opportunities of enjoyment, the more heavily
5. 14will he feel the ache of solitariness, the more unsubstantial
6. 15becomes the feast spread around him. What matters it,
7. 16whether in fact the viands and the ministering graces are
8. 17shadowy or real, to him who has not hand to grasp nor arms
9. 18to embrace them?

1. 19Imagination; honourable aims;
2. 20Free commune with the choir that cannot die;
3. 21Science and song; delight in little things,
4. 22The buoyant child surviving in the man;
5. 23Fields, forests, ancient mountains, ocean, sky,
6. 24With all their voices--O dare I accuse
7. 25My earthly lot as guilty of my spleen,
8. 26Or call my destiny niggard! O no! no!
9. 27It is her largeness, and her overflow,
10. 28Which being incomplete, disquieteth me so!

1. 29For never touch of gladness stirs my heart,
2. 30But tim'rously beginning to rejoice
3. 31Like a blind Arab, that from sleep doth start
4. 32In lonesome tent, I listen for thy voice.
5. 33Belovéd! 'tis not thine; thou art not there!
6. 34Then melts the bubble into idle air,
7. 35And wishing without hope I restlessly despair.

1. 36The mother with anticipated glee
2. 37Smiles o'er the child, that, standing by her chair
3. 38And flatt'ning its round cheek upon her knee,
4. 39Looks up, and doth its rosy lips prepare
5. 40To mock the coming sounds. At that sweet sight
6. 41She hears her own voice with a new delight;
7. 42And if the babe perchance should lisp the notes aright,

1. 43Then is she tenfold gladder than before!
2. 44But should disease or chance the darling take,
3. 45What then avail those songs, which sweet of yore
4. 46Were only sweet for their sweet echo's sake?
5. 47Dear maid! no prattler at a mother's knee
6. 48Was e'er so dearly prized as I prize thee:
7. 49Why was I made for Love and Love denied to me?