Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PORTRAIT IN THE HORIZONTAL, by RUTH FITCH BARTLETT
First Line: By apple trees let him be measured
Last Line: Of old saw mills.

By apple trees let him be measured,
Not by pines.
He has no spiked ambitions
But inclines
To tangle gestures, leisured,
Leaf-broken lines.

By fields and horizontal places,
Not by hills,
Nor Gothic cities judge him;
He fulfils
The destiny of ponds, behind the races
Of old saw mills.