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Yew

Dark yew trees add a gloomy, somber air to English churchyards. Anglo settlers brought them to America where they have become a feature of many graveyards. The trope "yew" or "you" tree invokes in the mind of poets a representation of the ultimate end of us all. (Cf. Wordsworth Yew-Trees and Lines Left Upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree) English cemeteries became yew-tree reserves because the branches were used to make bows. Once a year, parishioners would clip the churchyard yews so that other cemeteries might be filled with the victims of war.