Evening star., 1932-07-05

Joyce Kilmer's famous poem, Trees,
has been quoted so often in the past
decade that many tree lovers have for
gotten that Bliss Carman wrote one al
most as good.
Tn the Garden of Eden, planted by God,
There were goodly trees in the spring
ing sod
Trees of beauty and height and grace,
To stand in splendor before His face.
Trees for fruitage and fire and shade,
Trees for the cunning builders trade;
Wood for the bow, the spear and the
fail,
The keel and the mast of the daring
sail;
He made them of every grain and girth
For the use of man in the Garden OF
Earth"
Almost as good?
Il think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make tree"
The difference is one between the
old-fashioned spirit, and the new, al
though both poets recognize the kin
ship of the Creator and His trees.
Many will prefer the former, because
it contains less Sentimentality, more
practical reference to the utility, as well
as the beauty, of earth's largest plants.
Carman did not say that trees furnish
wood for radio sets, because he had
never heard of radio Nor was he a
catalogue poet as Walt Whitman was,
who loved to elaborate long lists of
materials, somehow impressed with the
belief that if he could make a mass
show of things he could infuse new
spirit into the art of poetry.
The very size of trees, it would seem,
has much to do with the impression
they make on humanity
Yet one seldom hears an ordinary
mortal waxing sentimental over noun
tains
1t is the tree and the tree alone,
among created things, which calls forth
paeans of praise, almost amounting to
psalms.
We have never been able to rave over
trees. although willing to admit their
beauty, and to claim that one appre-
ciates them more because of it.
They are so fine, in themselves, that
they need no adventitious praise; they
stand up for themselves, in all lands,
showing a range Of type which amaz-
ingly meets the needs of mankind, as
well as his varying sense of eSthetic ap-
probation.
There is tree for every use, as Bliss
Carman attempted to show in little;
there is a tree which somehow also
meets the demand of every sense.
Certainly no other type of living
thing has as many or varied uses as
wood. to say nothing of the fruits
and the fibers and other products into
which trees are turned through the
ingenuity Of man.
This very ingenuity Is a lifelong
cause for marveling, not only in regard
to trees, but also in relation to the
thousand and one other natural prod
ucts.
There is scarcely anything in Nature
which man has not been able to take
and make into many different products
for his use, either in a practical or an
eSthetic way.
The science Of chemistry, proudest
and most amazing daughter Of the age,
has given man so many new products,
made from combinations and recombi-
nations of old materials, that the aver
age person is utterly unable to keep
up with them.
There are two ways for the Nature
lover to look at trees. One is to attempt
to know" them, as the saying is, to
become familiar with their bark, their
leaves. and their fruits, If any.
The bark of no two trees is exactly
similar. He who knows his barks will
know his trees in a particular sense
The fruit trees always have exer-
cised special fascination on mankind,
since earliest times The eldest legend
we have is based on the apple.
Most of the blossoms of our fruit
trees are synonymous with beauty,