The Tulip Poplar
October 29, 2010
THE MATURE TULIP POPLAR (Liriodendron tulipfera), if given the space to spread and more than 75 years of growth, is a magnificent tree. Its truncate-retuse leaves look like heraldic emblems. They turn lemon yellow in the fall and make a splattering sound as they hit the ground, as if someone is pouring splotches of yellow paint. A few days later, the leaves are brown. They bring to mind these words from Robert Frost’s poem “Reluctance:”
Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?
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