Thou link ’twixt the living and dead?
What message would’st have us remember,
Writ on thy dried leaves, to be read
As lessons to youth and to age,
To the simple, the student, the sage?
Stern duty, thy scepter of power,
The husbandman readily sees;
And takes up the tasks of the hour
As the limbs bear the buds on the trees;
For he sows not, ploughs not, nor reaps;