of oak ash and thorn

 of oak ash and thorn

Rudyard Kipling

"Of all the trees that grow so fair,

   Old England to adorn,

Greater are none beneath the Sun,

   Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn.

Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs,

   (All of a Midsummer morn!)

Surely we sing no little thing,

   In Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oak of the Clay lived many a day,

   Or ever AEneas began.

Ash of the Loam was a lady at home,

   When Brut was an outlaw man.

Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town

   (From which was London born);

Witness hereby the ancientry

    Of Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Yew that is old in churchyard-mould,

   He breedeth a mighty bow.

Alder for shoes do wise men choose,

   And beech for cups also.

But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled,

   And your shoes are clean outworn,

Back ye must speed for all that ye need,

   To Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Ellum she hateth mankind, and waiteth

   Till every gust be laid,

To drop a limb on the head of him

   That anyway trusts her shade:

But whether a lad be sober or sad,

   Or mellow with ale from the horn,

He will take no wrong when he lieth along

   'Neath Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,

   Or he would call it a sin;

But - we have been out in the woods all night,

   A-conjuring Summer in!

And we bring you news by word of mouth-

   Good news for cattle and corn-

Now is the Sun come up from the South,

   With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs

   (All of a Midsummer morn):

England shall bide till Judgment Tide,

   By Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!"

Shakespeare on Hawthorn, As You Like It, Orlando to Rosalind, "...There is a man haunts the forest that

abuses our young plants with carving Rosalind on their

barks; hangs odes upon hawthorns and elegies on

brambles; all, forsooth, deifying the name of Rosalind.”

Henry VI, Part 3 "“Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade

To shepherds looking on their seely sheep

Than doth a rich embroidered canopy

To kings that fear their subjects’ treachery?”

Old English song of love "Of every kinnë tre,

Of every kinnë tre,

The hawthorn blowëth swetest,

Of every kinnë tre.

My lemman she shal be,

My lemman she shal be,

The fairest of every kinnë,

My lemman she shal be."

"There’s not a budding boy or girl this day,

Robert Herrick ..."But is got up and gone to bring in May;

A deal of youth ere this is come

Back, with whitethorn laden home.

The fair maid who, the first of May,

Goes to the fields at break of day

And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree,

Will ever after handsome be."

The Hawthorn Tree

Willa Cather

Across the shimmering meadows--

Ah, when he came to me!

In the spring-time,

In the night-time,

In the starlight,

Beneath the hawthorn tree.

Up from the misty marsh-land--

Ah, when he climbed to me!

To my white bower,

To my sweet rest,

To my warm breast,

Beneath the hawthorn tree.

Ask of me what the birds sang,

High in the hawthorn tree;

What the breeze tells,

What the rose smells,

What the stars shine--

Not what he said to me!