Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/128

cxxiv INTRODUCTION ���of a battle symphony. The winds beat against solid sur- faces with a drum-like resonance, they are their own fifes and clarions ; each cavity and hollow tube becomes a trumpet. Crude though the poem is, it now and then has in it some- thing of the stress and strain, something of the sweep of the storm itself. �No object in inanimate nature attracted Lady Winchilsea more strongly than trees. A charming early poem is called simply The Tree. The kind of tree is not named, though it was probably an oak. But more important than botanic exactitude is the impression made by the regal personality of this tree with its imposing height and wide hospitable spread of branches. Destruction by the ax of the common workman would be degradation. Fierce winds alone are of a rank worthily to compass its fall. And the news of such an event should resound from the earth to the congregated clouds, while in the end con- suming flames would be but as the funeral pyre of ancient heroes. The poem has no "unforgettable lines," but the conception of the patriarchal tree is not paralleled in kind before Christopher Smart's oak-tree in the Immensity of the Supreme Being. �In later poems this interest in trees is a frequent note. Ardelia's petition for an absolute retreat, �Mongst Paths so lost and Trees so high, That the world may ne'er invade Through such windings and such shade, My unshaken Liberty, �was practically answered at Eastwell. During her first summer there she was so enthusiastic in her pleasure that she was constantly overtaxing her strength by long walks through the forest-like park. Its solitude and beauty gave her inexplicable joy. Her released romantic tendencies found suddenly most happy activity. The silent forest ��� �