Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A POET'S APPEAL FOR THE NATURAL: 2. THE TREES, by WILLIAM STEWARD GORDON First Line: And I love the shaggy bark on trees Last Line: "disfigures what you would refine!" Subject(s): Nature; Poetry & Poets; Trees | ||||||||
And I love the shaggy bark on trees. What if 'tis coarse, and tawny-hued, And torn by Winter's tomahawk! A planing knife would make it seem A stilted, artificial thing. And let the fir grow skyward. 'Tis compasslike, and meant to point Its needle to the zenith pole, And not to squat squaw-like, with all The primal instincts chained or killed. To change a towering monarch to A shingle-headed dwarf is monstrous. Nor daub with paint the graining of Its wood. Would Guido vie with God In sketching witch-like tracery Upon the bird's-eye maple or The Douglas fir? And yet methinks I hear one say: "Old Nature's face is plainhis beard Is not the latest cut." I stoop Not for apology, but cry: "To sheer Time's locks, or shave his face Disfigures what you would refine!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PROBLEM OF DESCRIBING TREES by ROBERT HASS THE GREEN CHRIST by ANDREW HUDGINS MIDNIGHT EDEN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN REFLECTION OF THE WOOD by LEONIE ADAMS THE LIFE OF TREES by DORIANNE LAUX A HUSTLE FOR THE FAIR by WILLIAM STEWARD GORDON |
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