TONGUES IN TREES 



>F Woodland is not vocal to you, 

 you must indeed be dull and 

 of the earth, earthy. If the 

 wood-sprites do but love you, 

 what wisdom, what harmonies 

 it holds ! Whisperings soft as the breath 

 of violets ; clear singing of spread boughs 

 in the fine upper air. 



To hear them in full chorus go listen when 

 the leaves, fresh-fallen, lie heaped underfoot, 

 and through the bare, billowing tree-tops 

 the evening-star gleams faint. You shall 

 hear then first the strong note of the Oaks. 

 Brothers all yeomen of the forest stand- 

 ing always at guard ; the same sap thrills 

 each core, spite of their different leaves. 



One tree is white and tall and slender, 

 with the strength of good courage in its 

 tough, tensile fibre. Another is rough and 

 ruddy a huge, hearty fellow, brittle and 

 coarse of grain. Still another stands dark 

 and slim and so straight as to woo the 



