The Audubon Societies 123 



To quit her peace, and though it burn or freeze, 



To win for her in grim and perilous realms 



New and great glory. With her mighty-thewed 



Oaks shall abide her spirit bluff and strong; 



And while her winds are prayerful in great elms. 



Poets shall seek her haunts of solitude, 



And English leaves shall murmur through English song." 



— Geoffrey Howard, in The New Witness. 



"Much can they praise the trees so straight and high, 

 The sailing pine; the cedar proud and tall; 

 The vine-prop elm; the poplar never dry; 

 The builder oak, sole King of forests all; 

 The aspen good for staves; the cypress funeral; 

 The laurel, meed of mighty conquerors 

 And poets sage; the fir that weepeth still; 

 The willow, worn of forlorn paramours; 

 The yew, obedient to the bender's will; 

 The birch for shafts; the sallow for the mill; 

 The myrrh sweet-bleeding in the bitter wound; 

 The warlike beech; the ash for nothing ill; 

 The fruitful olive; and the platane round; 

 The carver holme; the maple, seldom inward sound." 

 — Spenser, 'Faerie Queene.' 



" 'Tis sweet, in the green Spring, 



To gaze upon the wakening fields around; 



Birds in the thicket sing, 

 Winds whisper, waters prattle from the ground; 



A thousand odors rise, 

 Breathed up from blossoms of a thousand dyes. 



Shadowy, and close, and cool, 

 The pine and poplar keep their quiet nook; 



Forever fresh and full. 

 Shines, at their feet, the thirst-inviting brook; 



And the soft herbage seems 

 Spread for a place of banquets and of dreams." 



— Bryant. 

 "Where roads are made I lose my way. 

 In the wide water, in the blue sky there is no line of a track. 

 The pathway is hidden by the birds' wings, by the star-fires, by the 



flowers of the wayfaring seasons. 

 And I ask my heart if its blood carries the wisdom of the unseen way." 

 — Rabindranath Tagore, 'Fruit-Gathering.' 



SUGGESTIONS 



1. Reread Longfellow's 'Hiawatha,' noting the references to nature, especially 

 trees and birds. 



2. Read 'The Fountain' and 'The Prairies' by Bryant. 



3. In the foregoing selections, note carefully the descriptive words used by the 

 poet, and look up the meaning of any words with which you are not familiar. 



