Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN APPLE BOUGH by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS

First Line: BENEATH ITS RUDDY BURDEN PROUDLY BENDING
Last Line: AND ONLY EMPTY LIVES FALL EVER DEAD.
Subject(s): APPLE TREES; TREES;
Beneath its ruddy burden proudly bending,
The happy bough sank lower day by day,
Till with a crash it broke -- ah, luckless ending! --
And on the ground a rotting ruin lay.

Not thus the tree of life, with rich surprises
Of heavy fruitage larger year by year:
Upright and firm its greening tower rises,
And bears its weightier burdens without fear.

For see! the fruit is winged! and light and fairer
The teeming tree exalts a statelier head;
For burdens nobly borne but lift the bearer,
And only empty lives fall ever dead.



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