GREEN is the plane-tree in the square,

The other trees are brown;

They droop and pine for country air;

The plane-tree loves the town.

Here from my garret-pane, I mark

The plane-tree bud and blow,

Shed her recuperative bark,

And spread her shade below.

Among her branches, in and out,

The city breezes play;

The dun fog wraps her round about;

Above, the smoke curls grey.

Others the country take for choice,

And hold the town in scorn;

But she has listened to the voice

On city breezes borne.

Amy Levy

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Amy Judith Levy (10 November 1861 – 9 September 1889) was an English essayist, poet, and novelist, and one of the first Jewish students at both Cambridge University and Newnham College. She was living in Bloomsbury, at 7 Endsleigh Gardens, when she wrote this poem, ‘A London Plane-Tree’ (1889).