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Heart of The Tree
By peace | July 28, 2007
The Heart of The Tree
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants a friend of sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty, towering high;
He plants a home to heaven anigh
For song and mother-croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard
The treble of heaven’s harmony
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest’s heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civic good
His blessings on the neighbourhood
Who in the hollow of His hand
Holds all the growth of all our land
A nation’s growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.
By Henry Cuyler Bunner (3 August 1855 - 11 May 1896)
Henry Cuyler Bunner was an American novelist, poet and editor whose verse and fiction primarily depict the scenes and people of New York City. Born in Oswego, New York, he was educated in New York City. From being a clerk in an importing house, he turned to journalism, and after some work as a reporter, and on the staff of The Arcadian (1873), he became in 1877 assistant editor of the comic weekly Puck. He soon assumed the editorship, which he held until his death in Nutley, N.J. He developed Puck from a new struggling periodical into a powerful social and political organ. In 1886 he published a novel, The Midge, followed in 1887 by The Story of a New York House. But his best efforts in fiction were his short stories and sketches Short Sixes (1891), More Short Sixes (1894), Made in France (1893), Zadoc Pine and Other Stories (1891), Love in Old Cloathes and Other Stories (1896), and Jersey Street and Jersey Lane (1896). His verses Airs from A ready and Elsewhere (884), containing the well-known poem, The Way to Arcady; Rowen (1892); and Poems (1896), edited by his friend Brander Matthews, displaying a light play of imagination and a delicate workmanship. He also wrote clever vers de société and parodies. One of his several plays (usually written in collaboration), was The Tower of Babel (1883).
Bunner served on the staff of the Arcadian, at 22 becoming assistant editor and later editor of Puck until his death. Bunner published several novels, but these are considered inferior to his stories and sketches. His short story “Zenobia’s Infidelity” was made into a feature film called “Zenobia” starring Harry Langdon and Oliver Hardy by the Hal Roach Studio in 1939.
Topics: Poems, View All Post |
