Dow Kritt by Edgar Lee Masters — Read

Samuel is forever talking of his elm --

But I did not need to die to learn about roots:

I, who dug all the ditches about Spoon River.

Look at my elm!

Sprung from as good a seed as his, / Sown at the same time, / It is dying at the top:

Not from lack of life, nor fungus, / Nor destroying insect, as the sexton thinks.

Look, Samuel, where the roots have struck rock, / And can no further spread.

And all the while the top of the tree / Is tiring itself out, and dying, / Trying to grow.