Trees in the Literature

Writers wax lyrical about trees. Here is a selection of extracts from the "Oxford Dictionary of Quotations".

**********

Joyce KILMER 1886-1918. American Poet

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

"Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree."

"Trees" (1914)

**********

Thomas CAMPBELL 1777-1844. Scottish Poet

"O leave this barren spot to me!
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree."

"The Beech-Tree's Petition" (1800)

**********

George Pope MORRIS 1802-64. American Poet

"Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I'll protect it now."

"Woodman, Spare that Tree" (1830)

**********

William BLAKE 1757-1827. English Poet

"A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees."

"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" (1790-93) - "Proverbs of Hell"

**********

Sir Thomas BROWNE 1605-82. English Writer & Physician

"Generations pass while some trees stand, and old families last not three oaks."

"Hydriotaphia" (Urn Burial, 1658) ch.5)

**********

A.E. HOUSEMAN 1859-1936. English Poet

"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide."

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow."

A Shropshire Lad" No.2 (1896)

**********

Thomas CARLYLE 1795-1881. English Writer

"When the oak is felled, the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze."

**********

Satires Bk.2, no.6, 1.1
"This was among my prayers: a piece of land not so very large, where a garden should be and a spring of ever-flowing water near the house, and a bit of woodland as well as these."

**********

And an assortment of anonymous quotes from elsewhere.

"If Mankind is sensitive to nature's cycles, then economic exploitation of trees and conservation can co-exist in perpetuity."

"Firmly rooted on the spot, immobile yet full of life, a tree is peculiar to its location."

Only now do we realise the richness and unique variety of flora and fauna that can exist only in Ancient Woodlands."

"A mature tree is a supermarket and a block of flats for animals, insects and birds."

"Trees and Man are at the opposite sides of the beneficial breathing cycle of oxygen and carbon dioxide."

"Silent, giant trees, mature before we were born and still here after we have gone, mark our ancient boundaries and dominate our landscapes."

"A stroll in the woods in the fresh early morning, in the drowsy afternoon or the cool of the evening is a benefit on which we cannot place a value."

"Roots, trunk, branches, twigs and leaves all combine to use light, water and minerals as raw materials to build the wooden columns we know as trees."

"Stand and observe the massed effect of trees in a wood; walk in and look closely at the trunks, the branches, the bark of individual trees. It will lift your spirit."

**********