StoryTitle("caps", "The Planting of the Apple-Tree") ?>
Planting of the Apple-Tree" has become a favourite for "Arbour Day"
exercises. The planting of trees as against their destruction is a vital
point in our political and national welfare. William Cullen
Bryant (1794-1878).
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Come, let us plant the apple-tree.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Cleave the tough greensward with the spade;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Wide let its hollow bed be made;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There gently lay the roots, and there", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sift the dark mould with kindly care,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And press it o'er them tenderly,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As round the sleeping infant's feet", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We softly fold the cradle sheet;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So plant we the apple-tree.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "What plant we in this apple-tree?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Buds, which the breath of summer days", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall lengthen into leafy sprays;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall haunt, and sing, and hide her nest;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "We plant, upon the sunny lea,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A shadow for the noontide hour,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A shelter from the summer shower,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "When we plant the apple-tree.", "") ?>
PagePoem(212, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "What plant we in this apple-tree?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sweets for a hundred flowery springs,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To load the May wind's restless wings,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When, from the orchard row, he pours", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Its fragrance through our open doors;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A world of blossoms for the bee,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Flowers for the sick girl's silent room,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the glad infant sprigs of bloom,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "We plant with the apple-tree.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "What plant we in this apple-tree?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Fruits that shall swell in sunny June,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And redden in the August noon,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And drop, when gentle airs come by,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That fan the blue September sky,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "While children come, with cries of glee,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And seek them where the fragrant grass", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Betrays their bed to those who pass,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "At the foot of the apple-tree.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And when, above this apple-tree,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The winter stars are quivering bright,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The winds go howling through the night,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Girls, whose eyes o'erflow with mirth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall peel its fruit by cottage hearth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And guests in prouder homes shall see,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Heaped with the grape of Cintra's vine,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And golden orange of the line,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The fruit of the apple-tree.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The fruitage of this apple-tree,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Winds and our flag of stripe and star", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall bear to coasts that lie afar,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where men shall wonder at the view,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And ask in what fair groves they grew;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And sojourners beyond the sea", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall think of childhood's careless day,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And long, long hours of summer play,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In the shade of the apple-tree.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Each year shall give this apple-tree", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A broader flush of roseate bloom,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A deeper maze of verdurous gloom,", "") ?>
PagePoem(213, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The years shall come and pass, but we", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall hear no longer, where we lie,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In the boughs of the apple-tree.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And time shall waste this apple-tree.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Oh, when its aged branches throw", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thin shadows on the ground below,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Shall fraud and force and iron will", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Oppress the weak and helpless still!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "What shall the tasks of mercy be,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of those who live when length of years", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Is wasting this apple-tree?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"Who planted this old apple-tree?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The children of that distant day", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thus to some aged man shall say;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And, gazing on its mossy stem,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The gray-haired man shall answer them:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"A poet of the land was he,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Born in the rude but good old times;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "'Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "On planting the apple-tree.\"", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("William Cullen Bryant.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>