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Under the Tree
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
- GenresPoetry
100 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1922
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 6, 2015
Rural poems of the American South, written with such childishly simple perceptions, meters and rhythms that it is impossible to believe that they were written by an adult, though the author was forty years of age when they were published.
Don't mistake the simplicity for a lack of quality though. The collection is actually something of a small delight, even if each of the poems could have been written on the back of a postage stamp after no more than a few minute's thought. Their guileless lack of sophistication is actually their strength.
The poems are either about the rustic charms of the farmstead ('The Cornfield', 'The Strange tree', 'Water Noises'), its animals ('Milking Time', 'Horse', 'The Hens'), the family ('Dick and Will', 'Father's Story', 'The Grandmother'), or about churchgoing and other simple bucolic pursuits ('The Pulpit', 'Mr. Bennybaker at Church', 'The Circus'). All are quite delightful.
The poems are all short and sweet, many having as little as eight syllables in the meter or verses of a single couplet. I think this example represents the whole very well:
The Rabbit
When they said the time to hide was mine,
I hid back under a thick grape vine.
And while I was still for the time to pass,
A little gray thing came out of the grass.
He hopped his way through the melon bed
And sat down close by a cabbage head.
He sat down close where I could see,
And his big still eyes looked hard at me,
His big eyes bursting out of the rim,
And I looked back very hard at him.
Don't mistake the simplicity for a lack of quality though. The collection is actually something of a small delight, even if each of the poems could have been written on the back of a postage stamp after no more than a few minute's thought. Their guileless lack of sophistication is actually their strength.
The poems are either about the rustic charms of the farmstead ('The Cornfield', 'The Strange tree', 'Water Noises'), its animals ('Milking Time', 'Horse', 'The Hens'), the family ('Dick and Will', 'Father's Story', 'The Grandmother'), or about churchgoing and other simple bucolic pursuits ('The Pulpit', 'Mr. Bennybaker at Church', 'The Circus'). All are quite delightful.
The poems are all short and sweet, many having as little as eight syllables in the meter or verses of a single couplet. I think this example represents the whole very well:
The Rabbit
When they said the time to hide was mine,
I hid back under a thick grape vine.
And while I was still for the time to pass,
A little gray thing came out of the grass.
He hopped his way through the melon bed
And sat down close by a cabbage head.
He sat down close where I could see,
And his big still eyes looked hard at me,
His big eyes bursting out of the rim,
And I looked back very hard at him.
February 25, 2024
Charming poems of childhood
May 28, 2012
Simple little poems from a Kentucky native. Nothing too deep, but I was intrigued by how they reflect the local culture even now (especially the bit about the nuns ;)
January 5, 2012
My review is here.
March 4, 2012
One of the best collection of poems ... Enjoyed by all ages ... Not just children !!!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews