Shadows (Howe)/A Tree
A TREE
LOWN all one way I saw it standForth from its fellows of the wood
That faced the sea-winds on the strand,
A tall, unflinching brotherhood.
Compassed by them, it might have grown
In strength and symmetry like theirs,
Not leaning landward now alone,
Like one unfriended, bent with cares.
In strength and symmetry like theirs,
Not leaning landward now alone,
Like one unfriended, bent with cares.
The winds had shaped it,—so I mused,
And gathered round I seemed to see
The forms of creatures, storm-blown, bruised,
Resting beneath their kinsman tree.
And gathered round I seemed to see
The forms of creatures, storm-blown, bruised,
Resting beneath their kinsman tree.
Some were the men bent all one way
By blasts of bitterness and wrong,
Doomed to a single-handed fray,
Too weak to meet a foe so strong.
By blasts of bitterness and wrong,
Doomed to a single-handed fray,
Too weak to meet a foe so strong.
The winds of poverty and loss
Of all that man counts dear on earth—
Whether the gold be gold or dross—
Had shapen some to forms of dearth.
Of all that man counts dear on earth—
Whether the gold be gold or dross—
Had shapen some to forms of dearth.
And those there were whose backs were bowed
By breezes they had thought all fair;
Prospered and loved too much, they showed
Distorted as the ugliest there.
By breezes they had thought all fair;
Prospered and loved too much, they showed
Distorted as the ugliest there.
Alien to joy, to sorrow near,
The subtler pains most subtly felt,
All the sad company was here,
Wherein misforming grief had dwelt.
The subtler pains most subtly felt,
All the sad company was here,
Wherein misforming grief had dwelt.
And now the wind-bent tree is more
Than tree unto mine inmost ken,
For in its image by the shore
I see the world-bent forms of men.
Than tree unto mine inmost ken,
For in its image by the shore
I see the world-bent forms of men.