ntly thy boughs might wave--
Better thou lov'st the silent scene
Around the victor's grave.

Where sleep the sons of ages flown,
The bards and heroes of the past,
Where through the halls of glory gone,
Murmurs the wintry blast;
Where years are hastening to efface
Each record of the grand and fair--
Thou, in thy solitary grace,
Wreath of the tomb! art there.

Oh! many a temple, once sublime
Beneath a blue Italian sky,
Hath nought of beauty left by time,
Save thy wild tapestry.
And, reared 'midst crags and clouds, 'tis thine
To wave where banners waved of yore,
O'er towers that crest the noble Rhine,
Along his rocky shore.

High from the fields of air look down
Those eyries of a vanished race,
Homes of the mighty, whose renown
Hath passed and left no trace.
But thou art there--thy foliage bright,
Unchanged, the mountain storm can brave--
Thou that wilt climb the loftiest height,
And deck the humblest grave.

The breathing forms of Parian stone,
That rise round grandeur's marble halls;
The vivid hues by painting thrown
Rich o'er the glowing walls;
Th' acanthus on Corinthian fanes,
In sculptured beauty waving fair--
These perished all--and what remains?
--Thou, thou alone art there.

'Tis still the same--where'er we tread,
The wrecks of human power we see,
The marvel of all ages fled,
Left to decay and thee.
And still let man his fabrics rear,
August in beauty, grace, and strength,--
Days pass, thou 'Ivy never sere,'[6]
And all is thine at length.

There was a strange old belief that Ivy leaves worn as a garland
prevented intoxication, that wine was less exciting when drunk from a
cup of its wood, and that these cups had finally the singular property
of separating water from wine by filtration, when the two were
mingled--or, as it is expressed by MIZALDUS MONLUCIANUS in his
delightfully absurd 'Centuries,'[7] 'a cup of Ivy, called _cissybius_,
is especially fitted for two reasons, for feasts: firstly, because Ivy
is said to banish drunkenness; and secondly, because by it the frauds of
tavern keepers, who mix wine with water, are detected.' It is worth
remarking, in connection with this, that, according to LOUDON(_Arboretum
et Fruticetum Brittanicum_, c. 59), the wood of the Ivy is, when newly
cut, really useful as a filter, though it is