The Dead Tree

The Dead Tree written by William Henry Davies

From "The Loneliest Mountain", 1939

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I had a cherry tree, one day,
   Against my garden wall;
There came a heavy wind at night,
   And made it crash and fall.
I hired a man, and gave him gold,
   To lift my tree up straight.
He nailed it back, nor missed one twig,
   And knew it was too late.
He knew my tree was old and dead,
   Yet worked with fiendish glee:
How lovely he has nailed his Christ
   On my dead cherry tree!

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.