148 ARBOR DAY 



rings of one of those awful trees which were stand- 

 ing when Christ was on earth, and where that brief 

 mortal life is chronicled with the stolid apathy of 

 vegetable being, which remembers all human history 

 as a thing of yesterday in its own dateless existence! 



INSCRIPTION FOR THE ENTRANCE TO 

 A WOOD 



BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT 



STRANGER, if thou hast learned a truth which needs 

 No school of long experience, that the world 

 Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen 

 Enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares, 

 To tire thee of it, enter this wild wood 

 And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade 

 Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze 

 That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a 



balm 



To thy sick heart. Thou wilt find nothing here 

 Of all that pained thee in the haunts of men, 

 And made thee loathe thy life. The primal curse 

 Fell, it is true, upon the unsinning earth, 

 But not in vengeance. God hath yoked to guilt 

 Her pale tormentor, misery. Hence, these shades 

 Are still the abodes of gladness; the thick roof 

 Of green and stirring branches is alive 

 And musical with birds, that sing and sport 



