Nature

Attitude under an Elm Tree

by Amy Lowell 1874–1925

From What's O'Clock (1925)

Nature

Seeing that you pass your life playing upon the virginals
In an upper chamber with only a slit of a window in it,
I wonder why I,
Roaming the hills on a charger red as maple-leaves,
Should find the thought of you attractive.
You were veiled at the jousting, you remember,
Which enables me to imagine you without let or hindrance from the rigidness of fact;

A condition not unproductive of charm if viewed philosophically.

Besides, your window gives upon a walled garden,

Which I can by no means enter without dismounting from my maple-red charger,

And this I will not do,
Particularly as the garden belongs indubitably to your ancestors.
But I thank you for the spray of myrtle I have wound about my sleeve.
As it over-topped the wall,

My plucking it was without malice.

MLA

Lowell, Amy. “Attitude under an Elm Tree.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lowell_a/370/.

Chicago

Lowell, Amy. “Attitude under an Elm Tree.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lowell_a/370/.

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