ELM trees, I think—@3I know@1, are feminine. They show so many signs of womanness! Their very shapes possess a pliant grace, A suppleness, a certain fragile charm That appertains to femininity— The utter opposite of ruggedness! They wear their leaves as ladies wear their lace— In little frills and rippling soft jabots, Small, unexpected bits of loveliness, In places where no leaves—or lace—would be But for a wicked woman coquetry— A wanton will to please and snare and tease. ... And yet one feels in them the quality Of tenderness, benign and feminine! Like mothers bending over sleeping babes, As quiet, gentle and as comforting, They keep their watch above the village streets And over lonely houses on far farms Where only elms are friends—or company! Like women, too, they shrink away from strife— Unlike the masculine, upstanding oaks That set their strength against the tempest's rage And fling the storm its angry challenge back, Elms yield and bend and bow before the gale, As timid women cower at man's wrath. ... Ah, yes, I think that elms are feminine— @3Perhaps enchanted ladies live in them!@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FIELD AMBULANCE IN RETREAT; VIA DOLOROSA, VIA SACRA by MAY SINCLAIR IN A CITY PARK by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON THE SOLITARY HEARTED by DAVID HARTLEY COLERIDGE LOVE'S BURIAL-PLACE: A MADRIGAL by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |