Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OAK AND THE MAN, by KATHARINE TYNAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OAK AND THE MAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The oak said to the forest trees
Last Line: Said: in my woods the wind stirreth.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hinkson, Katharine Tynan
Subject(s): Ignorance; Life; Mankind; Oak Trees; Pride; Dullness; Stupdity; Human Race; Self-esteem; Self-respect


THE oak said to the forest trees:
We are nigh as old as the eagle is,
As old as the carp that takes his ease
In the pond under the terraces.

Beech and lime, it is long in truth
Since I was an acorn round and smooth.
God knows, and yet I am still a youth:
I shall live a thousand years in sooth.

Brothers, he said, lean down by me.
See, a man walketh, so small to see!
His head is not as high as my knee,
But his pride soars high as the highest tree.

He who must die! His day is brief.
He swings on the bough like a painted leaf
That the wind of Autumn layeth in grief.
Friends, of us, trees, he is Lord and Chief!

He is but a babe and yet he is old.
A word, a song, and his tale is told.
He would soar to the sun but his heart grows cold,
His pride has neither stay nor hold.

Brothers, many men have we seen
By the lawns and the pond and the bowling-green
Of the ancient house that's wise and serene,
Nigh as old as myself, I ween.

We see man tottering, daisy-high.
A breath he loves, he is high as the sky.
He sees his children and he must die;
Brief as the moth and the butterfly.

Hear, ash and elm! He laughed in his beard.
The laughing forest rocked as it heard—
We are his, we whom the ages reared,
Whom storm nor lightning could make afeard!

See his pride. He is weak and slight,
Yet straddles earth like a god in his might.
We are his. We have seen the ages' flight
And this world's glory fade in a night!

The oak shook through his mighty girth.
Leagues of forest rocked to his mirth.
The man like a twig that has fallen to earth
Said: In my woods the wind stirreth.





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