Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ELM TREES, by ROSELLE MERCIER MONTGOMERY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ELM TREES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Elm trees, I think -- I know, are feminine
Last Line: Perhaps enchanted ladies live in them!
Subject(s): Elm Trees; Women


ELM trees, I think—I know, are feminine.
They show so many signs of womanness!
Their very shapes possess a pliant grace,
A suppleness, a certain fragile charm
That appertains to femininity—
The utter opposite of ruggedness!

They wear their leaves as ladies wear their lace—
In little frills and rippling soft jabots,
Small, unexpected bits of loveliness,
In places where no leaves—or lace—would be
But for a wicked woman coquetry—
A wanton will to please and snare and tease. ...

And yet one feels in them the quality
Of tenderness, benign and feminine!
Like mothers bending over sleeping babes,
As quiet, gentle and as comforting,
They keep their watch above the village streets
And over lonely houses on far farms
Where only elms are friends—or company!

Like women, too, they shrink away from strife—
Unlike the masculine, upstanding oaks
That set their strength against the tempest's rage
And fling the storm its angry challenge back,
Elms yield and bend and bow before the gale,
As timid women cower at man's wrath. ...
Ah, yes, I think that elms are feminine—
Perhaps enchanted ladies live in them!





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