"A Tree Song" (A Poem)

Originally published in 1906 as part of Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill, “A Tree Song” deals with the innocence of childhood before it is crippled by the stark sobriety of adulthood. Although the poem, which was meant to be a message for Kipling's children, draws on the concept of midsummer celebrations, much of the work's details (the ash, oak, and thorn, for example) are modern inventions by the poet and not traditional elements.[1] In fact, as Chas Clifton and Harvey Graham highlight, recent uses of the text, including Lady Sheba’s Book of Shadows (1971), have forgotten its authorship, removed it from its original context, and made assumptions that it was written in the pre-Christian era.[2]

Of all the trees that grow so fair,
Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun,
Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn.
Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good Sirs
(All of a Midsummer morn!)
Surely we sing no little thing,
In Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oak of the Clay lived many a day,
Or ever Æneas began;
Ash of the Loam was a lady at home,
When Brut was an outlaw man;
Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town
(From which was London born);
Witness hereby the ancientry
Of Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Yew that is old in churchyard mould,
He breedeth a mighty bow;
Alder for shoes do wise men choose,
And beech for cups also.
But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled,
And your shoes are clean outworn,
Back ye must speed for all that ye need,
To Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Ellum she hateth mankind, and waiteth
Till every gust be laid,
To drop a limb on the head of him,
That anyway trusts her shade
But whether a lad be sober or sad,
Or mellow with ale from the horn,
He will take no wrong when he lieth along
'Neath Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
Or he would call it a sin;
But – we have been out in the woods all night
A–conjuring Summer in!
And we bring you news by word of mouth –
Good news for cattle and corn –
Now is the Sun come up from the South,
With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!

Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good Sirs
(All of a Midsummer morn):
England shall bide till Judgment Tide,
By Oak, and Ash, and Thorn![3]

Works Referenced

Clifton, Chas and Graham Harvey, editors. The Paganism Reader. London, Routledge, 2004.

Dialmer, Morgan. Fairies: A Guide to the Celtic Fairy Folk. Hants, Moon Books, 2017.

Kipling, Rudyard. “A Tree Song.” Puck of Pook’s Hill. New York: Doubleday, Page, and Company, 1906. 29-30.
____________________ 
[1] Daimler,
[2] Clifton and Harvey, 80.
[3] Kipling, 29-30.