these accounts or occasions date before 1914. In his 1997 book of essays entitled The Geography of the Imagination, American writer Guy Davenport suggests a different inspiration for Kilmer's poem. Trees were favorite symbols for Yeats, Frost, and even the young Pound. ... But Kilmer had been reading about trees in another context[,] the movement to stop child labor and set up nursery schools in slums. ... Margaret McMillan ... had the happy idea that a breath of fresh air and an intimate acquaintance with grass and trees were worth all the pencils and desks in the whole school system. ... The English word for gymnasium equipment is 'apparatus.' And in her book Labour and Childhood (1907) you will find this sentence: 'Apparatus can be made by fools, but only God can make a tree.' It appears that Davenport must have loosely and erroneously paraphrased the sentiments expressed by McMillan, as this exact quote does not appear in her text. Instead, McMillan is expressing the observation that several nineteenth-century writers, including William Rankin, William Morris and Thomas Carlyle, opposed the effects of machinery on society and craftsmanship and thus eschewed machine-made items. Davenport's observation likely was derived in some way from McMillan's examination and quotation of Carlyle: He (Carlyle) often makes comparisons between men and machines, and even trees and machines, greatly to the disadvantage of the latter. For example, 'O, that we could displace the machine god and put a man god in his place!' and 'I find no similitude of life so true as this of a tree! Beautiful! Machine of the universe!'McMillan is quoting Carlyle, Thomas. "LECTURE I: The Hero as Divinity. Odin. Paganism: Scandinavian Mythology" in On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. (London: Chapman & Hall, 1840), 25. Translation to other languages Russian: Mikhail Rakhunov (Михаил Рахунов) Стихов прекрасных не найдем, Как дерево весенним днем; Как дерево, чей жадный рот Тугую грудь Земли сосет; Как дерево, что без конца В молитве чествует Творца; Что прячет в дивных волосах Гнездо весенних певчих птах; На чьей груди спит снег зимой, Чья страсть от влаги дождевой. Плетем, глупцы, мы сотни строк, А создает деревья Бог. Adaptations and parodies Musical adaptations Several of Kilmer's poems, including "Trees", were set to music and published in England by Kilmer's mother, Annie Kilburn Kilmer, who was a writer and amateur composer. The more popular musical setting of Kilmer's poem was composed