Mignonne, allons voir si la rose    Qui ce matin avait déclosé    Sa robe de poupre au soleil    A point perdu cette vêprée    Les plis de sa robe pourprée    Et son teint au vôtre pareil    Las! Voyez comme en peu d'espace    Mignonne, elle a dessus la place    Las! las! ses beautés laissé choir!    O vraiment marâtre est Nature    Puisqu'une telle fleur ne dure    Que du matin jusques au soir!       Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne    Tandis que votre âge fleuronne    En sa plus verte nouveaut    Cueillez, cueillez votre jeunesse:    Comme à cette fleur, la vieillesse    Fera ternir votre beauté       The old willows wrecked again and again in the hold of the woods held   in close confinement all round into the struggle for existance where the   streams were constantly taken from their course by the roots of the old   trees in the woods allowing no mill stream the free course through until   the whole of these fine old trees had got their whole water course directed   by their own roots into each others roots in their own devious way &   so each time the bad weather conditions came the dell of the old popular   willows received the whole rainfall & gave the roots of the old popular   trees the worst conditions they could not recover from. The result was   when the bad storms swept the ground downhill the whole of the upright   branches of the populars were wrecked and wrenched off as none had   sufficient root hold to do any good in holding as against the winds forcing   both root & trunks & branches to give way. The ultimate result was as   stated the cracking down of the branches & the breaking off of the main   trunk as it had no side branches to help its leaves to support the whole   tree. This gave the stubble growth of enforcing the trunk low down near   the ground to spray out the small side branches & to develope in the trunk   the further strength to enlarge the top of the trunk to enable the heavy   branch growth to develop & to give out a large number of spray branches   in all directions to keep control of the wind and also to stop the wind from   further to destroy the old trees in its course the winds followed the well   streams & then got the clear run free of the trees until a run of heavy old   tree trunks guided them out again into the ground where the rising ground   destroyed them by holding them in face clear of the winds the night mist.    -- Louis Wain (1860-1939)