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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410443" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Learning the Trees</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Before you can learn the trees, you have to learn<br>The language of the trees. That's done indoors,<br>Out of a book, which now you think of it<br>Is one of the transformations of a tree.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The words themselves are a delight to learn,<br>You might be in a foreign land of terms<br>Like samara, capsule, drupe, legume and pome,<br>Where bark is papery, plated, warty or smooth.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But best of all are the words that shape the leaves –<br>Orbicular, cordate, cleft and reniform –<br>And their venation – palmate and parallel –<br>And tips – acute, truncate, auriculate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sufficiently provided, you may now<br>Go forth to the forests and the shady streets<br>To see how the chaos of experience<br>Answers to catalogue and category.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Confusedly. The leaves of a single tree<br>May differ among themselves more than they do<br>From other species, so you have to find,<br>All blandly says the book, &quot;an average leaf.&quot;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Example, the catalpa in the book<br>Sprays out its leaves in whorls of three<br>Around the stem; the one in front of you<br>But rarely does, or somewhat, or almost;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Maybe it's not catalpa? Dreadful doubt.<br>It may be weeks before you see an elm<br>Fanlike in form, a spruce that pyramids,<br>A sweetgum spiring up in steeple shape.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Still, pedetemtim as Lucretious says,<br>Little by little, you do start to learn;<br>And learn as well, maybe, what language does<br>And how it does it, cutting across the world</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Not always at the joints, competing with<br>Experience while cooperating with<br>Experience, and keeping an obstinate<br>Intransigence, uncanny, of its own.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Think finally about the secret will<br>Pretending obedience to Nature, but<br>Invidiously distinguishing everywhere,<br>Dividing up the world to conquer it.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And think also how funny knowledge is:<br>You may succeed in learning many trees<br>And calling off their names as you go by,<br>But their comprehensive silence stays the same.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Howard+Nemerov">Howard Nemerov</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=410443" data-title="Learning the Trees de Howard Nemerov" data-description="Before you can learn the trees, you have to learn
The language of the trees. That's done indoors,
Out of a book, which now you think of it
Is one of the transformations of a tree.

The words themselves are a delight to learn,
You might be in a for..."></div>
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