New England master Robert Frost engages (engagingly) with one of his favourite subjects, trees.

ON GOING UNNOTICED

As vain to raise a voice as a sigh

In the tumult of free leaves on

high.

What are you in the shadow of trees

Engaged up there with the light and breeze?

Less than the coral-root you know

That is content with the daylight

low,

And has no leaves at all of its own;

Whose spotted flowers hang meanly down.

You grasp the bark by a rugged

pleat,

And look up small from the forest's feet.

The only leaf it drops goes wide,

Your name not written on either side.

You linger your little hour and are

gone,

And still the woods sweep leafily on,

Not even missing the coral-root flower

You took as a trophy of the hour.