Page:Anthology of Magazine Verse (1921).djvu/198

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And now as I lie here, Feeding this tree,I am more to the world Than it is to me.
The Century MagazineLouis Untermeyer


SALUTE TO THE TREES
Many a tree is found in the woodAnd every tree for its use is good:Some for the strength of the gnarled root,Some for the sweetness of flower or fruit;Some for shelter against the storm,And some to keep the hearth-stone warm;Some for the roof, and some for the beam,And some for a boat to breast the stream;—In the wealth of the wood since the world beganThe trees have offered their gifts to man.
But the glory of trees is more than their gifts:'Tis a beautiful wonder of life that lifts,From a wrinkled seed in an earth-bound clod,A column, an arch in the temple of God,A pillar of power, a dome of delight,A shrine of song, and a joy of sight!Their roots are the nurses of rivers in birth;Their leaves are alive with the breath of the earth;They shelter the dwellings of man; and they bendO'er his grave with the look of a loving friend.
I have camped in the whispering forest of pines,I have slept in the shadow of olives and vines;In the knees of an oak, at the foot of a palmI have found good rest and slumber's balm.And now, when the morning gilds the boughs

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