William Maw Egley, English
“Oh Please, You Look Beautiful. Trust Me, I Would Tell You If Your Roots Were Showing,” 1857
Oil on canvas
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Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived, if necessary), and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated Romanian Wikipedia page has more).
/// Walter named this tree The Talking Oak,
claiming that of Olivia it spoke.
Where her carved name defaced
its rough bark she embraced
it, and wondered how Walter’s mind broke.
/// Hit by acorns which fall to the ground,
fair Olivia feels love profound
for this wide, ancient tree.
She would hug it, but she
found she can’t wrap her short arms around.
/// This oak symbolized natural choices—
common sense in which wisdom rejoices.
It embodies great strength,
and narrates, at great length,
how a maid loved a man (who hears voices).
/// Egley painted this bucolic scene
of Olivia, dreamy, but keen
to embrace a man’s ardor.
That which makes their love harder:
An old oak tree’s their sole go-between.
/// Alfred Tennyson wrote a long verse
on this subject, (it should have been terse).
Walter hears the oak speaking
of the girl he’s been seeking.
I’d critique it, but I’ve written worse.
/// All her lovers were hard, rough, and tall,
and his hardwood was hardest of all.
Getting cut to the quick
by a splintery stick
didn’t faze her. The woman’s in thrall.
/// When she fondles his acorns, each nut
gives her pleasures she feels in her gut.
If she could, she would strut,
but her limbs have been cut
and she’s got a long stick up her butt.
/// Any woman who makes love to trees
must contend with rain blown on the breeze.
In the winter she freezes;
spring brings pollen and sneezes;
and in summer she fights swarms of bees.