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"? 



