O Reader! hast thou ever stood to see
The Holly-tree?
The eye that contemplates it well perceives
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O Reader! hast thou ever stood to see
The Holly-tree?
The eye that contemplates it well perceives
Its glossy leaves
Ordered by an Intelligence so wise
As might confound the Atheist's sophistries.

Those holies of themselves a shape
As of an arbor took.

Those holies of themselves a shape
As of an arbor took.

And as, when all the summer trees are seen
So bright and green,
The Holly leaves a read more

And as, when all the summer trees are seen
So bright and green,
The Holly leaves a sober hue display
Less bright than they,
But when the bare and wintry woods we see,
What then so cheerful as the Holly-tree?

All green was vanished save of pine and yew,
That still displayed their melancholy hue;
Save the read more

All green was vanished save of pine and yew,
That still displayed their melancholy hue;
Save the green holly with its berries red,
And the green moss that o'er the gravel spread.