...vegetation. None expressed this more colorfully than William Cullen Bryant in his "Forest Hymn" (1825): The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned...offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks And supplication. If the ill-fated Lombardy poplar was the sylvan expression of classicism, the elm was Gothicism in...

...of the proper reverence for holiness. In 'Forest Hymn' (1825) the forest was the primordial church: The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned...The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood Amidst its cool and silence, he knelt down, And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks And supplication. The...

...expressed the American, or New World, version of the forest as a form of primitive church or temple: The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft and lay the architectrave And spread the roof above them — ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll...

...Nature without Man The groves were God's first temples, Kre man learned To IK-\V tin- shaft, and lav the- architrave, And spread the roof above them —...ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll hack The sound of' anthems; in the darkling wood. Amidst the eool and silence, lie knelt down. Anil...

...their Creator. William Cullen Bryant beautifully praised the cedars, clearly predicting my sentiments: "The groves were God's first temples, Ere man learned To hew the shaft . . ." Solomon, in one of the first recorded "botany lectures," spoke of trees "from the cedar that...