Trees
From the Faerie Queene

by Edmund Spenser, (1552? - 1599)
 
 
And forth they pass, with pleasure forward led,
Joying to hear the birds' sweet harmony,
Which therein shrouded from the tempest dread,
Seemed in their song to scorn the cruel sky.
Much can they praise the trees so straight and high,
The sailing Pine, the Cedar proud and tall,
The vine-prop Elm, the Poplar never dry,
The builder Oak, sole king of forests all,
The Aspine good for staves, the Cypress funeral.
The Laurel, meed of mighty Conquerors
And Poets sage, the Fir that weepeth still,
The Willow worn of forlorn Paramours,
The Yew obedient to the bender's will,
The Birch for shafts, the Sallow for the mill,
The Mirrhe sweet bleeding in the bitter wound,
The warlike Beech, the Ash for nothing ill,
The fruitful Olive, and the Platane round,
The carver Holm, the Maple seldom inward sound. 

  
THE EXCUSE.

by Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) 

Calling to mind, my eyes went long about
To cause my heart to forsake my breast,
All in a rage I sought to pull them out,
As who had been such traitors to my rest :
What could they say to win again my grace?
Forsooth, that they had seen my mistress' face.

Another time, my heart I called to mind,
Thinking that he this woe on me had brought,
Because that he to love his force resigned,
When of such wars my fancy never thought :
What could he say when I would him have slain?
That he was hers, and had forgone my chain.

At last, when I perceived both eyes and heart
Excuse themselves, as guiltless of my ill,
I found myself the cause of all my smart,
And told myself that I myself would kill :
Yet when I saw myself to you was true,
I loved myself, because myself loved you.