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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE LONDON ALMOND TREE, by ANNIE MATHESON Poet's Biography
First Line: In desolate streets of london town
Last Line: Beneath a london almond-tree.
Subject(s): Almond Trees; London; Trees
First Line: In desolate streets of london town
Last Line: Beneath a london almond-tree.
Subject(s): Almond Trees; London; Trees
IN desolate streets of London town,
When all the wind is in the east,
And hope is faint and joy is least,
And life a chequered grey and brown;
Then faring drearily along,
What sets the prisoned spirit free
To break its bars and hear the song
Sung by the blossoming Almond-tree?
What but the vision strange and sweet
Of leafless branches touched by God
Until, like Aaron's blossoming rod,
Our unbelieving eyes they meet
With vision of the flowering peach—
Less lavish, yet more fair to see;
And love, like music, seems to reach
Our hearts from out the Almond-tree!
On leafless boughs rose-petals bloom
And chant, though not to outward ear,
The runes a listening soul may hear
Till lightened of its weight of gloom;
The world seems then less wintry cold,
Unkindness less unkind, and we
Hear whispers of a love untold
Under the blossoming Almond-tree.
The dead, the absent, are not far,
And in the stony London street
The unseen messengers may meet
Who come from where the angels are;
For Jacob's ladder still is set
Where least men look its light to see:
Such embassies may still be met
Beneath a London Almond-tree.
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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