Old Trees

Old trees, old trees! in your mystic gloom

there's many a warrior laid,

And many a nameless and lonely tomb

Is sheltered beneath your shade.

Old trees, old trees! without pomp or prayer

We buried the brave and the true,

We fired a volley and left them there

To rest, old trees, with you.

The ancient "Cemetery Oak" watches over the graves in

Greenwood Cemetery Houston, Texas

Old trees, old trees! I keep watch and ward

Over each grass-grown bed;

'Tis a glory, old trees, to stand as guard

Over the Southern dead;

Old trees, old trees! we shall pass away

Like the leaves you yearly shed,

But ye, lone sentinels, still must stay,

Old trees to guard 'our dead'.

"Old Trees"

Abram Joseph Ryan

(1838-1886)

Roman Catholic 

Poet-Priest of the South