Poems Dried Apple Pies I loathe, abhor, detest, despise, Abominate dried-apple pies. I like good bread, I like good meat, Or anything that's fit to eat; But of all poor grub beneath the skies, The poorest is dried apple pies. Give me the toothache, or sore eyes, But don't give me dried apple pies. The farmer takes his gnarliest fruit, 'Tis wormy, bitter, and hard, to boot; He leaves the hulls to make us cough, And don't take half the peeling off. Then on a dirty cord 'tis strung And in a garret window hung, And there it serves as roost for flies, Until it's made up into pies. Tread on my corns, or tell me lies, But don't pass me dried-apple pies. --Author Unknown The Crossed Apple I’ve come to give you fruit from out my orchard, Of wide report. I have trees there that bear me many apples. Of every sort: Clear, streaked; red and russet; green and golden; Sour and sweet. This apple’s from a tree yet unbeholden, Where two kinds meet, - So that this side is red without a dapple, And this side’s hue Is clear and snowy. It’s a lovely apple. It is for you. Within are five black pips as big as peas, As you will find, Potent to breed you five great apple trees Of varying kind: To breed you wood for fire, leaves for shade, Apples for sauce. Oh, this is a good apple for a maid, It is a cross, Fine on the finer, so the flesh is tight, And grained like silk. Sweet Burning gave the red side, and the white Is Meadow Milk. Eat it, and you will taste more than the fruit: The blossom, too, The sun, the air, the darkness at the root, The rain, the dew, The earth we came to, and the time we flee, The fire and the breast. I claim the white part, maiden, that’s for me. You take the rest. -- Louise Bogan The Planting of the Apple-Tree Come, let us plant the apple-tree. Cleave the tough greensward with the spade; Wide let its hollow bed be made; There gently lay the roots, and there Sift the dark mould with kindly care, And press it o'er them tenderly, As, round the sleeping infant's feet, We softly fold the cradle sheet; So plant we the apple-tree. What plant we in this apple-tree? Buds, which the breath of summer days Shall lengthen into leafy sprays; Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast, Shall haunt and sing and hide her nest; We plant, upon the sunny lea, A shadow for the noontide hour, A shelter from the summer shower, When we plant the apple-tree. What plant we in this apple-tree? Sweets for a hundred flowery springs To load the May-wind's restless wings, When, from the orchard row, he pours Its fragrance through our open doors; A world of blossoms for the bee, Flowers for the sick girl's silent room, For the glad infant sprigs of bloom, We plant with the apple-tree. What plant we in this apple-tree! Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, And redden in the August noon, And drop, when gentle airs come by, That fan the blue September sky, While children come, with cries of glee, And seek them where the fragrant grass Betrays their bed to those who pass, At the foot of the apple-tree. And when, above this apple-tree, The winter stars are quivering bright, And winds go howling through the night, Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth, Shall peel its fruit by cottage-hearth, And guests in prouder homes shall see, Heaped with the grape of Cintra's vine And golden orange of the line, The fruit of the apple-tree. The fruitage of this apple-tree Winds and our flag of stripe and star Shall bear to coasts that lie afar, Where men shall wonder at the view, And ask in what fair groves they grew; And sojourners beyond the sea Shall think of childhood's careless day And long, long hours of summer play, In the shade of the apple-tree. Each year shall give this apple-tree A broader flush of roseate bloom, A deeper maze of verdurous gloom, And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower, The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower; The years shall come and pass, but we Shall hear no longer, where we lie, The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh, In the boughs of the apple-tree. And time shall waste this apple-tree. Oh, when its aged branches throw Thin shadows on the ground below, Shall fraud and force and iron will Oppress the weak and helpless still? What shall the tasks of mercy be, Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears Of those who live when length of years Is wasting this little apple-tree? "Who planted this old apple-tree?" The children of that distant day Thus to some aged man shall say; And, gazing on its mossy stem, The gray-haired man shall answer them: "A poet of the land was he, Born in the rude but good old times; ‘T is said he made some quaint old rhymes On planting the apple-tree." --William Cullen Bryant
Poems Dried Apple Pies I loathe, abhor, detest, despise, Abominate dried-apple pies. I like good bread, I like good meat, Or anything that's fit to eat; But of all poor grub beneath the skies, The poorest is dried apple pies. Give me the toothache, or sore eyes, But don't give me dried apple pies. The farmer takes his gnarliest fruit, 'Tis wormy, bitter, and hard, to boot; He leaves the hulls to make us cough, And don't take half the peeling off. Then on a dirty cord 'tis strung And in a garret window hung, And there it serves as roost for flies, Until it's made up into pies. Tread on my corns, or tell me lies, But don't pass me dried-apple pies. --Author Unknown The Crossed Apple I’ve come to give you fruit from out my orchard, Of wide report. I have trees there that bear me many apples. Of every sort: Clear, streaked; red and russet; green and golden; Sour and sweet. This apple’s from a tree yet unbeholden, Where two kinds meet, - So that this side is red without a dapple, And this side’s hue Is clear and snowy. It’s a lovely apple. It is for you. Within are five black pips as big as peas, As you will find, Potent to breed you five great apple trees Of varying kind: To breed you wood for fire, leaves for shade, Apples for sauce. Oh, this is a good apple for a maid, It is a cross, Fine on the finer, so the flesh is tight, And grained like silk. Sweet Burning gave the red side, and the white Is Meadow Milk. Eat it, and you will taste more than the fruit: The blossom, too, The sun, the air, the darkness at the root, The rain, the dew, The earth we came to, and the time we flee, The fire and the breast. I claim the white part, maiden, that’s for me. You take the rest. -- Louise Bogan The Planting of the Apple-Tree Come, let us plant the apple-tree. Cleave the tough greensward with the spade; Wide let its hollow bed be made; There gently lay the roots, and there Sift the dark mould with kindly care, And press it o'er them tenderly, As, round the sleeping infant's feet, We softly fold the cradle sheet; So plant we the apple-tree. What plant we in this apple-tree? Buds, which the breath of summer days Shall lengthen into leafy sprays; Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast, Shall haunt and sing and hide her nest; We plant, upon the sunny lea, A shadow for the noontide hour, A shelter from the summer shower, When we plant the apple-tree. What plant we in this apple-tree? Sweets for a hundred flowery springs To load the May-wind's restless wings, When, from the orchard row, he pours Its fragrance through our open doors; A world of blossoms for the bee, Flowers for the sick girl's silent room, For the glad infant sprigs of bloom, We plant with the apple-tree. What plant we in this apple-tree! Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, And redden in the August noon, And drop, when gentle airs come by, That fan the blue September sky, While children come, with cries of glee, And seek them where the fragrant grass Betrays their bed to those who pass, At the foot of the apple-tree. And when, above this apple-tree, The winter stars are quivering bright, And winds go howling through the night, Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth, Shall peel its fruit by cottage-hearth, And guests in prouder homes shall see, Heaped with the grape of Cintra's vine And golden orange of the line, The fruit of the apple-tree. The fruitage of this apple-tree Winds and our flag of stripe and star Shall bear to coasts that lie afar, Where men shall wonder at the view, And ask in what fair groves they grew; And sojourners beyond the sea Shall think of childhood's careless day And long, long hours of summer play, In the shade of the apple-tree. Each year shall give this apple-tree A broader flush of roseate bloom, A deeper maze of verdurous gloom, And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower, The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower; The years shall come and pass, but we Shall hear no longer, where we lie, The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh, In the boughs of the apple-tree. And time shall waste this apple-tree. Oh, when its aged branches throw Thin shadows on the ground below, Shall fraud and force and iron will Oppress the weak and helpless still? What shall the tasks of mercy be, Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears Of those who live when length of years Is wasting this little apple-tree? "Who planted this old apple-tree?" The children of that distant day Thus to some aged man shall say; And, gazing on its mossy stem, The gray-haired man shall answer them: "A poet of the land was he, Born in the rude but good old times; ‘T is said he made some quaint old rhymes On planting the apple-tree." --William Cullen Bryant
