A Ballad of Trees and the Master.

Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)



Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, forspent.
Into the woods my Master came,
Forspent with love and shame.
But the olives they were not blind to Him,
The little gray leaves were kind to Him:
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him
When into the woods He came.
  
Out of the woods my Master went,
And He was well content.
Out of the woods my Master came,
Content with death and shame.
When Death and Shame would woo Him last,
From under the trees they drew Him last:
'Twas on a tree they slew Him - last
When out of the woods He came.
  
  
Baltimore, November, 1880.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on April 09, 2023

33 sec read
41

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCCB AABBDDDB X
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 554
Words 112
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 1

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier was a poet, writer, composer, critic, professor of literature at Johns Hopkins and first flutist with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltiimore. He wrote the Centennial cantata for the opening ceremony of the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. more…

All Sidney Lanier poems | Sidney Lanier Books

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