The first stanza sets the tone; his feelings for the Birch tree and its wisdom are made apparent. The construction of the Pantheon began in 27 BC by the statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and measuring about 142 feet (43 m) in diameter. The Ancient Egyptian obelisk (like Thutmose III about 1500 BC) could have measured over 100 ft (30 m) high. They are not near; they are not in sight. Though they too stand in wisdom, these structures do not compare to the "seer and venerable" Black Birch. Both are marked by Nature's passing. But the tree is the personification of Nature itself, and thus carries more wisdom; the veiled eye of Nature is watching over us. It won't speak to us like the hieroglyphics on the Obelisk, or cry out of its decay like the Pantheon; it is simply there, and leaves us to inquire.

"A Monarch of the forest shade"..."In robe of living green." The trees are the wise men of the forests. "Far in Acadia's solitudes, where the lone hunter scarce intrudes, a Giant Tree displays." And a few stanzas later he say's, "As upwards I direct my eye, to yon green arbor broad and high, to me it would appear, as though a prophet of the past, with Nature's mantle round him cast, held converse with me here." You can feel his love for the tree, and the forests. This raises an interesting question about his Pulp and Paper discovery of 1838.