| Publication information |
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Source: Poems of American History Source type: book Document type: poem Document title: “The Comfort of the Trees” Author(s): Gilder, Richard Watson Editor(s): Stevenson, Burton Egbert Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Place of publication: Boston, Massachusetts Year of publication: 1908 Pagination: 650 |
| Citation |
| Gilder, Richard Watson. “The Comfort of the Trees.” Poems of American History. Ed. Burton Egbert Stevenson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1908: p. 650. |
| Transcription |
| full text |
| Keywords |
| William McKinley (poetry); William McKinley (death: poetry). |
| Named persons |
| none. |
| Notes |
| From title page: Collected and Edited by Burton Egbert Stevenson. |
| Document |
The Comfort of the Trees
GENTLE and generous, brave-hearted, kind,
And full of love and trust was he, our chief;
He never harmed a soul! Oh, dull and blind
And cruel, the hand that smote, beyond belief!
Strike him? It could not be! Soon should we find
’T was but a torturing dream—our sudden grief!
Then sobs and wailings down the northern wind
Like the wild voice of shipwreck from a reef!
By false hope lulled (his courage gave us hope!)
By day, by night we watched,—until unfurled
At last the word of fate!—Our memories
Cherish one tender thought in their sad scope:
He, looking from the window on this world,
Found comfort in the moving green of trees.