Wednesday, October 24

Blog All About It: Tree Poetry




This month the prompt is "TREES".

I wasn't sure what to really do this month. Lots of ideas, but nothing I really wanted to do. So, I'll just share some poetry with trees mentioned or as the theme. There will be some pics too! Sorry to be boring this month! But I'm feeling poetry ;)

Image result for This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison




BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
[Addressed to Charles Lamb, of the India House, London]

Well, they are gone, and here must I remain, 
This lime-tree bower my prison! I have lost 
Beauties and feelings, such as would have been 
Most sweet to my remembrance even when age 
Had dimm'd mine eyes to blindness! They, meanwhile, 
Friends, whom I never more may meet again, 
On springy heath, along the hill-top edge, 
Wander in gladness, and wind down, perchance, 
To that still roaring dell, of which I told; 
The roaring dell, o'erwooded, narrow, deep, 
And only speckled by the mid-day sun; 
Where its slim trunk the ash from rock to rock 
Flings arching like a bridge;—that branchless ash, 
Unsunn'd and damp, whose few poor yellow leaves 
Ne'er tremble in the gale, yet tremble still, 
Fann'd by the water-fall! and there my friends 
Behold the dark green file of long lank weeds, 
That all at once (a most fantastic sight!) 
Still nod and drip beneath the dripping edge 
Of the blue clay-stone. 

Now, my friends emerge 
Beneath the wide wide Heaven—and view again 
The many-steepled tract magnificent 
Of hilly fields and meadows, and the sea, 
With some fair bark, perhaps, whose sails light up 
The slip of smooth clear blue betwixt two Isles 
Of purple shadow! Yes! they wander on 
In gladness all; but thou, methinks, most glad, 
My gentle-hearted Charles! for thou hast pined 
And hunger'd after Nature, many a year, 
In the great City pent, winning thy way 
With sad yet patient soul, through evil and pain 
And strange calamity! Ah! slowly sink 
Behind the western ridge, thou glorious Sun! 
Shine in the slant beams of the sinking orb, 
Ye purple heath-flowers! richlier burn, ye clouds! 
Live in the yellow light, ye distant groves! 
And kindle, thou blue Ocean! So my friend 
Struck with deep joy may stand, as I have stood, 
Silent with swimming sense; yea, gazing round 
On the wide landscape, gaze till all doth seem 
Less gross than bodily; and of such hues 
As veil the Almighty Spirit, when yet he makes 
Spirits perceive his presence. 

A delight 
Comes sudden on my heart, and I am glad 
As I myself were there! Nor in this bower, 
This little lime-tree bower, have I not mark'd 
Much that has sooth'd me. Pale beneath the blaze 
Hung the transparent foliage; and I watch'd 
Some broad and sunny leaf, and lov'd to see 
The shadow of the leaf and stem above 
Dappling its sunshine! And that walnut-tree 
Was richly ting'd, and a deep radiance lay 
Full on the ancient ivy, which usurps 
Those fronting elms, and now, with blackest mass 
Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue 
Through the late twilight: and though now the bat 
Wheels silent by, and not a swallow twitters, 
Yet still the solitary humble-bee 
Sings in the bean-flower! Henceforth I shall know 
That Nature ne'er deserts the wise and pure; 
No plot so narrow, be but Nature there, 
No waste so vacant, but may well employ 
Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart 
Awake to Love and Beauty! and sometimes 
'Tis well to be bereft of promis'd good, 
That we may lift the soul, and contemplate 
With lively joy the joys we cannot share. 
My gentle-hearted Charles! when the last rook 
Beat its straight path along the dusky air 
Homewards, I blest it! deeming its black wing 
(Now a dim speck, now vanishing in light) 
Had cross'd the mighty Orb's dilated glory, 
While thou stood'st gazing; or, when all was still, 
Flew creeking o'er thy head, and had a charm 
For thee, my gentle-hearted Charles, to whom 
No sound is dissonant which tells of Life. 



Image result for tree portrait






BY JOYCE KILMER

I think that I shall never see 
A poem lovely as a tree. 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; 

A tree that looks at God all day, 
And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 

A tree that may in Summer wear 
A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 
Who intimately lives with rain. 

Poems are made by fools like me, 

But only God can make a tree.



Image result for apple tree


by: Christina Rossetti

 I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree
    And wore them all that evening in my hair:
Then in due season when I went to see
        I found no apples there.

With dangling basket all along the grass
    As I had come I went the selfsame track:
My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass
        So empty-handed back.

Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,
    Their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer;
Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky,
        Their mother’s home was near.

Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,
    A stronger hand than hers helped it along;
A voice talked with her through the shadows cool
        More sweet to me than song.

Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth
    Than apples with their green leaves piled above?
I counted rosiest apples on the earth
        Of far less worth than love.

So once it was with me you stooped to talk
    Laughing and listening in this very lane:
To think that by this way we used to walk
        We shall not walk again!

I let me neighbours pass me, ones and twos
    And groups; the latest said the night grew chill,
And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews
        Fell fast I loitered still.



8 comments:

Sophia Rose said...

I think you picked rather well. I'm not one generally inclined toward poetry, but even I feel the pull in the Autumn. I love what the Coleridge poem speaks about those in the city longing for views of nature. So, true!

Carol said...

I enjoyed the poems. Thank you for sharing. I think it was a perfect direction to go with the prompt.

Blodeuedd said...

Awww lovely ones

Carole Rae said...

Sophia, thank you! :) I agree completely

Carol, thank you! I am glad you enjoyed them.

B, :3

Anna (herding cats-burning soup) said...

A good way to go. Thank you for sharing those :)

Carole Rae said...

Thank you Anna!

vvb32 reads said...

Nice! I like the apple tree photo :-)

Carole Rae said...

I like it too!