TREES 83 



But worthier still of note 

 Are those fraternal Four of Borrowdale, 

 Joined in one solemn and capacious grove; 

 Huge trunks! and each particular trunk a 



growth 



Of intertwisted fibers serpentine 

 Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved 

 Nor uninformed with Phantasy, and looks 

 That threaten the profane ; a pillared shade, 

 Upon whose grassless floor of red-brown hue, 

 By sheddings from the pining umbrage tinged 

 Perennially beneath whose sable roof 

 Of boughs as if for festal purpose decked 

 With unrejoicing berries ghostly shapes 

 May meet at noontide." . . . 



In this remarkable poem, Wordsworth 

 has captured utterly the type expressed 

 in tree-individuality ; and he has done even 

 more he has saturated his description 

 with the weird, solemn inner quality of 

 the type. Who save William Words- 

 worth could have used the phrases "unre- 

 joicing berries" and "in the midst of its 

 own darkness"? 



