Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WOODSMAN, by GENEVIEVE TAGGARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WOODSMAN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I think you draw out roses on the stem
Last Line: Glittering leaves, and she is gaunt and spare.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wolf, Robert Leopold, Mrs.
Subject(s): Lumber And Lumbering


I think you draw out roses on the stem
Just by your love, because you look for them.

So a drab woman, when you look at her
Puts on new leaves where never any were.

No matter how much winter she has seen
Or how much sorrow, you will make her green.

If she should stand a skeleton-tree for years
You would not give her up, for all your fears,

But look at her as if she rustled soft
Multitudes of leaves held lightly up aloft,

Until her branches were an airy flush,
Color of second life, green burning bush.

And if the woman flings her hair, and shakes
Her thin leaves from her -- bows her head and takes

The steep path down her roots, to lie as seed
Under the ragged triumph of a weed,

And though her shell grows crooked, cold and brown,
You let her go, and do not cut her down;

You let her go, content that she will come
Up from the earth in hymeneal bloom;

You do not cut her down -- though all her sisters wear
Glittering leaves, and she is gaunt and spare.





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