An apple tree beside the way, <br />Drinking the sunshine day by day <br />According to the Master's plan, <br />Had been a faithful friend to man. <br />It had been kind to all who came, <br />Nor asked the traveler's race or name, <br />But with the peasant boy or king <br />Had shared its blossoms in the spring, <br />And from the summer's dreary heat <br />To all had offered sweet retreat. <br /> <br />When autumn brought the harvest time, <br />Its branches all who wished might climb, <br />And take from many a tender shoot <br />Its rosy-cheeked, delicious fruit. <br />Good men, by careless speech or deed, <br />Have caused a neighbor's heart to bleed; <br />Wrong has been done by high intent; <br />Hate has been born where love was meant, <br />Yet apple trees of field or farm <br />Have never done one mortal harm. <br /> <br />Then came the Germans into France <br />And found this apple tree by chance. <br />They shared its blossoms in the spring; <br />They heard the songs the thrushes sing; <br />They rested in the cooling shade <br />Its old and friendly branches made, <br />And in the fall its fruit they ate. <br />And then they turn on it in hate, <br />Like beasts, on blood and passion drunk, <br />They hewed great gashes in its trunk. <br /> <br />Beneath its roots, with hell's delight, <br />They placed destruction's dynamite <br />And blew to death, with impish glee, <br />An old and friendly apple tree. <br />Men may rebuild their homes in time; <br />Swiftly cathedral towers may climb, <br />And hearts forget their weight of woe, <br />As over them life's currents flow, <br />But this their lasting shame shall be: <br />They put to death an apple tree!<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-apple-tree-in-france/
