ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
41 
FOREST SONG. 
A SONG for the beautiful trees ! 
A song for the forest grand, 
The garden of God’s own land, 
The pride of His centuries. 
Hurrah ! for the kingly oak, 
For the maple, the sylvan queen. 
For the lords of the emerald cloak, 
For the ladies in living green. 
For the beautiful trees a song, 
The peers of a glorious realm, 
The linden, the ash, and the elm. 
The poplar stately and strong. 
Hurrah ! for the beech-tree trim, 
For the hickory stanch at core, 
For the locust thorny and grim, 
For the silver sycamore. 
A song for the palm,— the pine, 
And for every tree that grows 
From the desolate zone of snows 
To the zone of the burning line. 
Hurrah ! for the warders proud 
Of the mountain-side and vale, 
That challenge the thunder-cloud, 
And buffet the stormy gale. 
A song for the forest aisled, 
With its gothic roof sublime, 
The solemn temple of time, 
Where man becometh a child, 
As he lists to the anthem-roll 
Of the wind in the solitude, 
The hymn which telleth his soul 
That God is the voice of the wood. 
So long as the rivers flow, 
So long as the mountains rise, 
May the forest sing to the skies, 
And shelter the earth below. 
Hurrah ! for the beautiful trees, 
Hurrah ! for the forest grand, 
The pride of His centuries, 
The! garden of God’s own land. 
W. H. Venable. 
