3. I left thee, my Oak, and, since that fatal hour, A stranger has dwelt in the hall of my Till Manhood shall crown me, not mine is the power, But his, whose neglect may have bade thee expire. 1[There is no heading to the original MS., but on the blank leaf at the end of the poem is written, "To an oak in the garden of Newstead Abbey, planted by the author in the oth year of [his] age; this tree at his last visit was in a state of decay, though perhaps not irrecoverable." On arriving at Newstead, in 1708, Byron, then in his eleventh year, planted an oak, and cherished the fancy, that as the tree flourished so should he. On revisiting the abbey, he found the oak choked up by weeds and almost destroyed; hence these lines. It may still be seen, a fine and flourishing tree.] |