Treeless air

Lafayette Street in Salem, Mass., in 1910: an example of the '‘high-tunnelled effects'‘ of American elms over streets and a scene once common in New England — until Dutch elm disease killed most of these lovely plants in the mid-20th Century.

“Here where the elm trees were

is only empty air.

Where once they stood

How blunt the buildings are!

Where the trees were,
sky itself has fled

far overhead.’’

From “Elegy,’’ by Constance Carrier (1908-1991), a Connecticut poet and teacher