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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


MEMORIAL by STANTON ARTHUR COBLENTZ

First Line: THE FOREST REARS NO TOMBSTONE FOR ITS DEAD
Last Line: OUT OF ITS CRUMBLED HEART.
Subject(s): FORESTS; WOODS;

The forest rears no tombstone for its dead,
But builds a soft brown floor of fallen leaves.
And where torn logs remember glories fled,
Only the night-wind grieves.

The towered lords of yesterday still give
Their substance for tomorrow's bud and shoot;
Ten thousand murmurous generations live
Within each thrusting root.

And this the monument the woods bestow
On the great oak, cloven and rent apart:
That a green seedling, after years, will grow
Out of its crumbled heart.



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