Oak Poetry

Editor's Picks

UK Oak Open Days: June 15–17, 2024

Three-day event included visits to two parks in Berkshire...

Roderick Cameron | Aug 18, 2024

Several abstracts included research involving Quercus.

Website Editor | Aug 13, 2024

Participants at the Oak Study Day in Arboretum des Pouyouleix

French Oak Open Days: 8–12 June, 2024

This five-day event included visits to four oak collections...

Website Editor | Aug 12, 2024

Plant Focus

Species Spotlight: Quercus dumosa Nutt.

Animals, plants, and fungi depend on this humble tree, but its future—and theirs—is all but certain.

"Las Encinas" by Antonio Machado

By Website Editor | June 28, 2024

A new entry in our series on Oak Poetry, this poem by Antonio Machado describes the holm oaks of his native Spain (Quercus rotundifolia and Q. ilex). The common name in Spanish for these trees is encina, which derives from the Latin word ilex, and which originally referred to these oaks, not to hollies.

Read more about "Las Encinas" by Antonio Machado

A Haiku by Matsuo Bashō

By Website Editor | April 15, 2024

Continuing our series of posts of poems that feature oaks: a haiku by the legendary Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694).

Read more about A Haiku by Matsuo Bashō

"Mighty Oak Trees" by Hank Williams Jr.

By Website Editor | December 21, 2023

Continuing our series of posts of poems that feature oaks: the lyrics of a country song that likens faithful friends to a stand of oak trees.

If you would like to propose a poem for inclusion in this series, please click here.

Read more about "Mighty Oak Trees" by Hank Williams Jr.

"The Haunted Oak" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

By Website Editor | October 23, 2023

A harrowing tale of a lynching and the withering of an oak bough

Read more about "The Haunted Oak" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

"Le chêne et le roseau" (The Oak and the Reed) by Jean de La Fontaine

By Website Editor | June 19, 2023

Previous entries in this series of poems that mention oaks have tended to be complimentary of our favorite genus of trees. In this one, however, the oak plays the anti-hero, proud, haughty, and inflexible opposite the pliant reed that bends but does not break.