Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN A WOOD, by THOMAS HARDY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN A WOOD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Pale beech and pine so blue [or, pine-tree blue]
Last Line: Life-loyalties.
Subject(s): Environment; Forests; Trees; Environmental Protection; Ecology; Conservation; Woods


PALE beech and pine-tree blue,
Set in one clay,
Bough to bough cannot you
Bide out your day?
When the rains skim and skip,
Why mar sweet comradeship,
Blighting with poison-drip
Neighborly spray?

Heart-halt and spirit-lame,
City-opprest,
Unto this wood I came
As to a nest;
Dreaming that sylvan peace
Offered the harrowed ease --
Nature a soft release
From men's unrest.

But, having entered in,
Great growths and small
Show them to men akin --
Combatants all!
Sycamore shoulders oak,
Bines the slim sapling yoke,
Ivy-spun halters choke
Elms stout and tall.

Touches from ash, O wych,
Sting you like scorn!
You, too, brave hollies, twitch
Sidelong from thorn.
Even the rank poplars bear
Illy a rival's air,
Cankering in black despair
If overborne.

Since, then, no grace I find
Taught me of trees,
Turn I back to my kind,
Worthy as these.
There at least smiles abound,
There discourse trills around,
There, now and then, are found
Life-loyalties.







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