THE TREE 163 



upon a nation. The northern peoples, century 

 after century, lived under one or other of the two 

 great powers of the pine and the sea, both infinite. 

 They dwelt amidst the forests as they wandered on 

 the waves, and saw no end nor any other horizon. 

 Still the dark, green trees, or the dark, green waters, 

 jagged the dawn with their fringe or their foam. 

 And whatever elements of imagination, or of warrior 

 strength, or of domestic justice, were brought down 

 by the Norwegian or the Goth against the dissolute- 

 ness or degradation of the south of Europe, were 

 taught them under the green roofs and wild pene- 

 tralia of the pine. 



THE TREE* 



BY JONES VERY 



I LOVE thee when thy swelling buds appear 



And one by one their tender leaves unfold, 

 As if they knew that warmer suns were near, 



Nor longer sought to hide from winter's cold : 

 And when with darker growth thy leaves are seen, 



To veil from view the early robin's nest, 

 I love to lie beneath thy waving screen 



With limbs by summer's heat and toil oppressed; 

 And when the autumn winds have stripped thee bare, 



And round thee lies the smooth, untrodden snow, 



* By permission of the Century Company, New York. 



