To the Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree. (Pyrus aucuparia.)

To the Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree.

(Pyrus aucuparia.)
Centuries before the Shamrock had become
The symbol of old Erin, thy berries red,
Borne on its banners, had shone overhead
Whenever their fierce warriors did charge home.
Long before Cæsar cross’d the Rubicon, 5
They form’d the standard of their chivalry,
Whose knighthood took their proudest name from thee:*
And now in peace we love to look upon
Thy white flowers in the Spring, and watch to see
How thy bright berries i’ Autumn can adorn 10
Thy fine green branches. One can scarcely scorn
Those who believed thou could from witchcraft free:
What fiend can injure those who always find
Beauty and good around then unconfined!

George Markham Tweddell
* The Craobh Ruadh, or Red Branch, so called because the
knights of Fianna Eirinn, or army of Erin, bore a branch of
the Mountain Ash, with its scarlet berries, on their standard.
[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, p. 59]