Song of the Redwood-Tree
by Walt Whitman
1
A California song,
A prophecy and indirection, a thought impalpable to breathe as air,
A chorus of dryads, fading, departing, or hamadryads departing,
A murmuring, fateful, giant voice, out of the earth and sky,
Voice of a mighty dying tree in the redwood forest dense.
Farewell my brethren,
Farewell O earth and sky, farewell ye neighboring waters,
My time has ended, my term has come.
Along the northern coast,
Just back from the rock-bound shore and the caves,
In the saline air from the sea in the Mendocino country,
With the surge for base and accompaniment low and hoarse,
With crackling blows of axes sounding musically driven by strong
arms,
Riven deep by the sharp tongues of the axes, there in the redwood
forest dense,
I heard the mighty tree its death-chant chanting.
Song of the Redwood
The Heart of the Tree
The Heart of the Tree
by Henry Cuyler Bunner
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants a friend of sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty, towering high;
He plants a home to heaven anigh;
For song and mother-croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard—
The treble of heaven's harmony—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest's heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civic good—
His blessings on the neighborhood,
Who in the hollow of His hand
Holds all the growth of all our land—
A nation's growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree
See that Lovely Juniper
by Ginevra Visconti
See that lovely juniper, pressed so hard,
angry winds swirl round her, but she'll not let
her leaves fall or scatter; clenched, branches held
high, she gathers strength; her refuge within.
This, my friend, is a picture of my soul
standing firm against all; if life's ravaged,
weakened me, my fear's contained, and I win
by enduring a pain which makes it hurt
to breathe. Mine was a noble dream, sheltered
in his splendor and love, my pride would be
restored; I would encounter life's bitter
battles. Nature taught this tree to resist:
in me you see what reason can perform
how from the worst evil good can grow.
Refuge Within
Mellow Richness
Autumn
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
With what a glory comes and goes the year!
The buds of spring, those beautiful harbingers
Of sunny skies and cloudless times, enjoy
Life's newness, and earth's garniture spread out;
And when the silver habit of the clouds
Comes down upon the autumn sun, and with
A sober gladness the old year takes up
His bright inheritance of golden fruits,
A pomp and pageant fill the splendid scene.
There is a beautiful spirit breathing now
Its mellow richness on the clustered trees,
And, from a beaker full of richest dyes,
Pouring new glory on the autumn woods,
And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds.
Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird,
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer,
Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life...
See that Lovely Juniper
by Ginevra Visconti
See that lovely juniper, pressed so hard,
angry winds swirl round her, but she'll not let
her leaves fall or scatter; clenched, branches held
high, she gathers strength; her refuge within.
This, my friend, is a picture of my soul
standing firm against all; if life's ravaged,
weakened me, my fear's contained, and I win
by enduring a pain which makes it hurt
to breathe. Mine was a noble dream, sheltered
in his splendor and love, my pride would be
restored; I would encounter life's bitter
battles. Nature taught this tree to resist:
in me you see what reason can perform
how from the worst evil good can grow.
Branches Held High
Of Shine and Shade
Song of Myself, II
by Walt Whitman
Houses and rooms are full of
perfumes, the shelves are crowded
with
perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself and
know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate
me also, but I shall not let it.
The atmosphere is not a perfume,
it has no taste of the
distillation, it is odorless,
It is for my mouth forever, I am in
love with it,
I will go to the bank by the wood
and become undisguised and
naked,
I am mad for it to be in contact with
me.
The smoke of my own breath,
Echoes, ripples, buzz’d whispers,
love-root, silk-thread, crotch and
vine,
My respiration and inspiration, the
beating of my heart, the passing
of blood and air through my lungs,
The sniff of green leaves and dry
leaves, and of the shore and
dark-color’d sea-rocks, and of hay
in the barn,
The sound of the belch’d words of
my voice loos’d to the eddies of
the wind,
A few light kisses, a few embraces,
a reaching around of arms,
The play of shine and shade on the
trees as the supple boughs wag,
The delight alone or in the rush of
the streets, or along the fields
and hill-sides,
The feeling of health, the full-noon
trill, the song of me rising
from bed and meeting the sun.
Have you reckon’d a thousand
acres much? have you reckon’d the
earth much?
Have you practis’d so long to learn
to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the
meaning of poems?
Stop this day and night with me
and you shall possess the origin of
all poems,
You shall possess the good of the
earth and sun, (there are millions
of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at
second or third hand, nor look
through
the eyes of the dead, nor feed on
the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes
either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter
them from your self.
Trees
by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Against the Sweet Earth
Room to See the Sky
Leaves
by Sara Teasdale
One by one, like leaves from a tree,
All my faiths have forsaken me;
But the stars above my head
Burn in white and delicate red,
And beneath my feet the earth
Brings the sturdy grass to birth.
I who was content to be
But a silken-singing tree,
But a rustle of delight
In the wistful heart of night
I have lost the leaves that knew
Touch of rain and weight of dew.
Blinded by a leafy crown
I looked neither up nor down
But the little leaves that die
Have left me room to see the sky;
Now for the first time I know
Stars above and earth below.
The Heart of the Tree
by Henry Cuyler Bunner
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants a friend of sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty, towering high;
He plants a home to heaven anigh;
For song and mother-croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard—
The treble of heaven's harmony—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest's heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civic good—
His blessings on the neighborhood,
Who in the hollow of His hand
Holds all the growth of all our land—
A nation's growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree
Cool Shade
In Hushed and Happy Twilight
The Heart of the Tree
by Henry Cuyler Bunner
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants a friend of sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty, towering high;
He plants a home to heaven anigh;
For song and mother-croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard—
The treble of heaven's harmony—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest's heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civic good—
His blessings on the neighborhood,
Who in the hollow of His hand
Holds all the growth of all our land—
A nation's growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree
Foreign Lands
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Up into the cherry-tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.
I saw the next-door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.
I saw the dimpling river pass
And be the sky’s blue looking-glass;
The dusty roads go up and down
With people tramping in to town.
If I could find a higher tree,
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the see among the ships.
To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.
Farther and Farther
Mossy Boughs
A Forest Hymn
by William Cullen Bryant
The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them,—ere he framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication. For his simple heart
Might not resist the sacred influences
Which, from the stilly twilight of the place,
And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven
Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound
Of the invisible breath that swayed at once
All their green tops, stole over him, and bowed
His spirit with the thought of boundless power
And inaccessible majesty. Ah, why
Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore
Only among the crowd, and under roofs
That our frail hands have raised?
Tree and Sky
by William Carlos Williams
Again
the bare brush of
the half-broken
and already-written-of
tree alone
on its battered
hummock —
Above
among the shufflings
of the distant
cloud-rifts
vaporously
Bare Brush
Accompanying the Sun
"The Trees like Tassels—hit—and swung—"
by Emily Dickinson
The Trees like Tassels—hit—and swung—
There seemed to rise a Tune
From Miniature Creatures
Accompanying the Sun—
Far Psalteries of Summer—
Enamoring the Ear
They never yet did satisfy—
Remotest—when most fair
The Sun shone whole at intervals—
Then Half—then utter hid—
As if Himself were optional
And had Estates of Cloud
Sufficient to enfold Him
Eternally from view—
Except it were a whim of His
To let the Orchards grow—
A Bird sat careless on the fence—
One gossipped in the Lane
On silver matters charmed a Snake
Just winding round a Stone—
Bright Flowers slit a Calyx
And soared upon a Stem
Like Hindered Flags—Sweet hoisted—
With Spices—in the Hem—
'Twas more—I cannot mention—
How mean—to those that see—
Vandyke's Delineation
Of Nature's—Summer Day!