Wine, Water and Song

<h2><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_49" title="49"> </SPAN>The Song of the Oak</h2> <div class="poetry width20"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="line"><span class="upper-case">The</span> Druids waved their golden knives<br/></div> <div class="line">And danced around the Oak<br/></div> <div class="line">When they had sacrificed a man;<br/></div> <div class="line">But though the learned search and scan,<br/></div> <div class="line">No single modern person can<br/></div> <div class="line">Entirely see the joke.<br/></div> <div class="line">But though they cut the throats of men<br/></div> <div class="line">They cut not down the tree,<br/></div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_50" title="50"> </SPAN><div class="line">And from the blood the saplings sprang<br/></div> <div class="line">Of oak-woods yet to be.<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">But Ivywood, Lord Ivywood,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">He rots the tree as ivy would,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">He clings and crawls as ivy would<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">About the sacred tree.<br/></div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="line">King Charles he fled from Worcester fight<br/></div> <div class="line">And hid him in an Oak;<br/></div> <div class="line">In convent schools no man of tact<br/></div> <div class="line">Would trace and praise his every act,<br/></div> <div class="line">Or argue that he was in fact<br/></div> <div class="line">A strict and sainted bloke,<br/></div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_51" title="51"> </SPAN><div class="line">But not by him the sacred woods<br/></div> <div class="line">Have lost their fancies free,<br/></div> <div class="line">And though he was extremely big<br/></div> <div class="line">He did not break the tree.<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">But Ivywood, Lord Ivywood,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">He breaks the tree as ivy would,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">And eats the woods as ivy would<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">Between us and the sea.<br/></div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div class="line">Great Collingwood walked down the glade<br/></div> <div class="line">And flung the acorns free,<br/></div> <div class="line">That oaks might still be in the grove<br/></div> <div class="line">As oaken as the beams above,<br/></div> <div class="line">When the great Lover sailors love<br/></div> <SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_52" title="52"> </SPAN><div class="line">Was kissed by Death at sea.<br/></div> <div class="line">But though for him the oak-trees fell<br/></div> <div class="line">To build the oaken ships,<br/></div> <div class="line">The woodman worshipped what he smote<br/></div> <div class="line">And honoured even the chips.<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">But Ivywood, Lord Ivywood,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">He hates the tree as ivy would,<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">As the dragon of the ivy would<br/></div> <div class="line indent2">That has us in his grips.<br/></div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />