It is a tree that strives for the upper reaches, with straight stems and branches. Its stem is usually very tall, like an artificial one, with no side branches within ten feet; All its branches are upward, and they are close together, as if they were artificial, and they have become a bundle, so there is no possibility of escaping sideways; Its broad leaves are also upward one by one, and there are almost no oblique leaves, let alone upside down; Its skin is smooth and silvery, with a slight blue color. This is a tree that stands tenaciously despite the oppression of heavy snow in the north! Even if it is only as thick as the bowl mouth, it will strive to develop upwards, reaching a height of 20 feet, towering and unyielding, facing the northwest wind. ?
This is the poplar, a common tree in the northwest, but it is by no means an ordinary tree! ?
It has no swaying posture and no crooked autumn branches. Maybe you should say it's not beautiful. If beauty means "swaying" or "running sideways", then poplar is not a good woman on the tree. But it is stalwart, honest, simple and earnest, and it is not lacking in tenderness, not to mention tenacity and honest and frank. It's a man in a tree! When you walk on the plateau where the snow is melting, you see such a tree or a row of poplars standing proudly on the flat land. Do you think a tree is just a tree? Don't you think it is simple, serious, strong and unyielding, at least it symbolizes the farmers in the north; Don't you think that in the vast land behind enemy lines, there are strong and unyielding sentries standing proudly like this poplar, guarding their hometown! Don't you think further, this poplar tree, with dense branches and leaves, is now a symbol of the spirit and will to write the history of new China with blood in the North China Plain? ?
Excerpt from Mao Dun's Praise of Poplar