The Mountain and the Tree
Who now is this Tree
That stands here before me
Along with its crooked cousin
So lacking perfect symmetry
Two always watching sentries
Guard against all enemies
It stands tall upon on a hill
Watching over a Mountain Range
Quite strange
The mountain needs a sentry
Outside its serene and empty entry
Or perhaps it just needs a viewer
And just can't resist the lure to say:
"This is me, Tree,
Don't you see
My great expanse fills your view!
Don't you see, it’s just Me and You
and the Sky Blue
But I'm the Vaster of us Two.”
The Tree feels small for a little while
Then says with a crooked smile
"Oh Mighty Mountain I hear your call
You're the Vastest of them all.
But without this mere little Tree
To whom would you say, "Look here at Me"?
My view is Vast my Horizons Everlast
While all you see, is poor little me
Which of us lives more free?
And one day when I finally fall
You'll have no one to make feel small
What means vast with nothing to compare
Just like the tortoise and the hare
So Dear Mountain, don't try to compete
You need this tree
To make you complete
The Mountain does a double double take
Realising it’s Existential Mistake
For without Something to take in its view
is its existence even true?
is it really so mighty and vast?
Is the Hare, truly fast
Without a tortoise to whizz past?
So the Mountain did what Mountains do
It Mountained and Mountained as hard it could
And gave away its power, to a piece of wood
About this poem
This is a conversation between a Mountain and a Tree, which harks to the observer effect in quantum physics. The Mountain is only the Mountain, because there’s a tree to see. Otherwise it’s life would be empty.
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Written on November 15, 2022
Submitted by cmd_1 on November 15, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 48 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AAXABB XC CAAXX AADDDD EE FFAA GAA FFHH IAI JJDDGGG DK K |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,456 |
Words | 300 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 2, 5, 6, 2, 4, 3, 4, 3, 7, 2, 1 |
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"The Mountain and the Tree" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 28 May 2023. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/146133/the-mountain-and-the-tree>.
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