How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
Since country is so tender
To touch, her being só slender,
That, like this sleek and seeing ball
But a prick will make no eye at all, (12-15)
If you've ever jammed a stick into your eye, well, first off, why? Second, though, you must have realized pretty quickly that your eyeball ceased to function. It was no longer an eye, really, since you couldn't see out of it. That stick changed the whole function of your eye. The speaker here is comparing that kind of profound change to the changes wrought by human intrusion into the natural world. By definition, humans meddling in Nature ceases to make it natural. Instead, it's now part of human civilization. That's a change that can't be undone.
Quote #5
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc únselve
The sweet especial scene, (19-22)
The change brought on by the loss of these trees is permanent and profound. Whoever comes to the same spot after they're gone will never know the beauty that existed before. That's a pretty heavy realization. It really makes you want to tip-toe through the natural world so you don't change a thing.