Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The Hollow Oak

Hollow is the oak beside the sunny waters drooping;
Thither came, when I was young, happy children trooping;
Dream I now, or hear I now--far, their mellow whooping?

Gay below the cowslip bank, see the billow dances,
There I lay beguiling time--when I lived romances;
Dropping pebbles in the wave, fancies into fancies;--

Farther, where the river glides by the wooded cover,
Where the merlin singeth low, with the hawk above her
Came a foot and shone a smile--woe is me, the Lover!

Leaflets on the hollow oak still as greenly quiver,
Musical amid the reeds murmurs on the river;
But the footstep and the smile?--woe is me for ever!