Elms leap where askes lay

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  • Elms leap: elms sleep
  • Askes → a conflation of "ashes" and "oaks" → Ashes of oaks
  • askes: (Middle English) ashes → the Phoenix’s ashes (FW 004.17)
  • askes lay. Phall:ALP
  • oaks ... ald ... elms ... askes: the letters of the early Irish alphabet (and of the Ogham alphabet which preceded it) were named after trees. The Ogham alphabet was called beithe-luis-nin or beithe-luis after its first, second and fifth characters:
    • a = ailm (pine)
    • b = beithe (birch)
    • c = coll (hazel)
    • d = dair (oak)
    • e = edad (aspen)
    • f = fern (alder)
    • g = gort (ivy)
    • h = úath (whitethorn)
    • i = idad (yew)
    • l = luis (rowan, mountain-ash)
    • m = muin (vine)
    • n = nin (ash)
    • o = onn (furze, gorse)
    • p = pin (pine? gooseberry? rowan?)
    • r = ruis (elder)
    • s = sail (willow)
    • t = tinne (holly)
    • u = úr (heather)
  • oaks ... ald ... elm ... askes: trees are used proverbially to represent eternity; in Ulysses, Gerty MacDowell muses that Edy Boardman "never had a foot like Gerty MacDowell, a five, and never would ash, oak or elm". See also Rudyard Kipling's poem A Tree Song: "England shall bide Judgement tide / By oak and ash and thorn."