Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | III. Adversity | | Perished | | Mary Louise Ritter |
| | Catskill Mountain House
WAVE after wave of greenness rolling down | |
| From mountain top to base, a whispering sea | |
| Of affluent leaves through which the viewless breeze | |
| Murmurs mysteriously. | |
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| And towering up amid the lesser throng, | 5 |
| A giant oak, so desolately grand, | |
| Stretches its gray imploring arms to heaven | |
| In agonized demand. | |
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| Smitten by lightning from a summer sky, | |
| Or bearing in its heart a slow decay, | 10 |
| What matter, since inexorable fate | |
| Is pitiless to slay. | |
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| Ah, wayward soul, hedged in and clothed about, | |
| Doth not thy life’s lost hope lift up its head, | |
| And, dwarfing present joys, proclaim aloud,— | 15 |
| “Look on me, I am dead!” | | | | |
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