*' Collecting I traverse the garden * * * for tokens * . * Here 



lilac with a branch of pine * 

 Here some pinks and laurel leaves, and a handful of sage*** 



WALT WHITMAN. 



MAY 



TT is interesting to observe how differently writers 

 ** have described the green tint of the trees. Tennyson 



sings of 



" Branches fledged with clearest green, 

 New from its silken sheath." 



One striking and uncommon thought is that of Walt Whit- 

 man's, where he speaks of 



"... A live oak growing, 

 Without any companion it grew there, uttering 

 Joyous leaves of dark green." 



How exactly suited, when one considers, is this application 

 of uttering not shaking, or waving and perhaps the poet 

 had unconsciously in his mind at the time Shakespeare's 

 " tongues in trees." In this direction we might class the 

 ' uncomplaining trees," and 



" A murmur in the trees, 

 . . . Everywhere a voice of prophecy," 



which is to be found in Kipling's two sonnets. Or take the 

 line in Rossetti's " English May," when 



" Hedgerows pine from green to grey " 



as the year advances, and which, on noticing, is quite true. 

 Whittier sings of " sombreing pines," and again of 



" The bay 

 Green-belted with eternal pines."" 



99 



