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Death of an Elm

Farewell, Ellerker, whose entrance I have guarded
These two centuries past. I have served thee well.
Conceived as one, I your father served,
And lived to tell
How both withstood the ravages of time – Nature, more gentle than those evil men,
Confounded Forced kinder men to raze thee to the ground,
Those upstarts Buonaparte and Adolf My sorrow to joy turned when like a Phoenix burned
Who pounded our fair city. You rose again, grander than the first.
The pinnacled tower of the ‘King’ whose bell Since then,
Sings to me across the Wold – Though maimed by that marauding mite,
The boarded arms of the windmill high on I’ve guarded thee, Ellerker,
Skidby dyke will tell of my devotion. Till manhood you have gained. Factum est. Farewell.

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