The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-08-08
THE WOODS
BY DOUGLAS MALLOCH
THE LETTER.

II CAN'T tell you, girl, how / love you
i it is something the woods never
teach;
can lie all the night and think of you.
but l can't put the matter in speech
But it's love ike the blue skies above you
that around the whole universe reach.
It is love that is wide as the arches of
stars from the east to the west;a~
1t is love that is long as the marches of
sunrise to sunset and rest;
1t is love that is strong as the larches
that mount to earth's uttermost
In the woods we are rougher thsR others
you know in the parlors of town;
To the wolf and the wild we are brothers,
we are kin to the creatures of brown;
1t is long since we crept to our mothers
and slept on our pillows of down.
For we sleep in the huts of the humble
and we live on a sturdier fare;
And the music we hear is the rumble. OF
thunders of earth and of air
Where the pine and the tamarack tumble
and the pathway OF progress pre-
pare
Yet this land is the land of the lover.
the place for love such as mine;
Oh. sweet is the scent of the clover. Lut
strong is the heart of the pine;
Loves cup in the town bubbles over,
but here it is purple as wine.
We live and we love and we labor up
here on a mightier scale;
To the north and the night we are neigh
Dor. We fare, kin of the star and the
gale;
The lightning it threats with its sabre,
the northwind it stings with its hail.
And the heart of the man is made strong
er with the strength of the thing
that he fights,
And the love of his heart is made longer
by the length of the loneliest nights
For the lover whose heart is a-hunger
longs most for lovers delights.
The fellow away from the city the tricks
of the city forgets:
He can't say the thing that is witty, he
can't breathe his soul in regrets;
He can't say the thing that is pretty to
please the pink ear of cOquettes.
For the bigness of life is about him. the
bigness of heaven and star;
Though the city runs onward without
him. forgetting the forest afar.
When he speaks let no cleverness doubt
him, for he speaks of the things as
they are.
And this is~the love that bring you. the
love of the man out-of-doors:
And this is the song that l sing you, the
song that the nightingale pours,
The song that the nightingales fling you
from eventide's musical shores.
The shepherd boy carols his meter. and
follows the feet of the herds;
The song of the skylark IS feeter because
of the absence of words:
Is the language OF mor;als the sweeter.
more sweet than the music OF birds?
My lips they may treTble to say it,
however my pulses may beat;
The tale that l tell you may weigh II and
find il tale incomplete
But here is my heart, and | lay II, all
voiceless and mute. at your feet 80
can't tell YOU. girl. the old story, en-
benished with city-bred lies.
The tale that a planet grown hoary still
hears with the olden-surprise-
But the night is all starshine and glory
because / have looked in your eyes
The night is all starshine and splendor
up here In the tamarack lands;
The night is all moonlit and tender be-
cause of the touch of your hands
And your eyes they may widen with
wonder. but ! know that your heart
understands.
tCopyright)
-O