300 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [14:7— Oct., 1918 



Cambridge, Mass., 3d July 1775, he calls his poem "Under the 

 Old Elm" for he says 



"What landmark is so congenial as a tree." 



And he uses the old elm under which Washington stood 



'Beneath our consecrated elm 

 A century ago he stood,' 



to illustrate all the passing history as a mark and starting place. 



Maybe Lowell best expresses his love for trees in "Under the 



Willows." Who can doubt his feeling when they read, 



'I care not how men trace their ancestry, 

 To ape or Adam; let them please their whim; 

 But I in June am midway to believe 

 A tree among my far progenitors, 

 Such sympathy is mine with all the race, 

 Such mutual recognition vaguely sweet 

 There is between us. Surely there are times 

 When they consent to own me their kin, 

 And condescend to me, and call me cousin, 

 Murmuring faint lullabies of eldest time 

 Forgotten, and yet dumbly felt with thrills 

 Moving the lips, though fruitless of all words.' 



Or speaking of them quite as friends again — 



'And I have many a life long leafy friend 

 Never estranged nor careful of my soul, 

 That knows I hate the axe, and welcomes me 

 Within his tent as if I were a bird 

 Or other free companion of the earth,' 



Such examples of his intimate feeling and knowledge are found 



throughout his poems. 



Some descriptions of trees bring quite definite pictures to 



mind and we can see as Lowell saw, as he wrote, the very trees 



in their native surroundings. The following word picture of 



the birch is a vivid example, 



"The birch, most shy and lady-like of trees 

 Her poverty, as best she may retrieves 

 And hints at her forgone gentilities 

 With some saved relic of her wealth of leaves." 



It is interesting to note the use of pronouns "her" for a birch, 

 slender and white, but for a gnarled old oak it's "he" or "his." 

 Other descriptions are quite as intimate, his poems are full of 

 them. To really know and love the trees as Lowell did one must 

 know first the trees and then read Lowell with the trees in mind. 

 Then the poems have a new meaning and Lowell himself becomes 

 not James Russell Lowell, poet and diplomat; but the lover of 

 nature and all out-of-doors and above all, Lowell your friend. 



