THE
TREES
ADRIENNE RICH
THINKING ABOUT THE POEM
1) i) Find, in the first stanza, three
things that cannot happen in a treeless forest.
ii) What picture do these words create in your mind: “….. sun bury its feet in
shadow…..1′? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet’?
Ans: i) The three things that can't occur in a treeless forest are – the
sitting of a bird on trees, the hiding away of insects and the sun covering its
feet in the shadow of the forest.
ii) The sun's 'feet' refers to the beams
of the sun that fall on the earth. When there is no shadow on the ground, in
light of the fact that there are no trees, the rays fall straightforwardly on
the ground. In a forest with trees, the shadow conceals the sun rays and it
appears to be that the sun is covering its feet in the shadow that fall from
the trees.
2) i) Where are the trees in the poem? What
do their roots, their leaves and their twigs do?
ii) What does the poet compare their branches to?
Ans: i) The trees
are caught in the poet's home. Their roots work practically the entire night to
withdraw themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor. The leaves make a
decent attempt to move towards the glass and put a lot of focus on it so it
breaks, while the little twigs get firm with effort.
ii) The poet compares the branches to
recently released patients of a hospital. The huge parts of the trees become
confined because of the roof above them, and when they get free they surge
amazingly to the rest of the world. At the same time, they look half-stunned
like the patients, who trust that quite a while will escape the hospital.
3) i) How does the poet describe the moon:
(a) at the beginning of the third stanza, and
(b) at its end? What causes this change?
ii) What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
iii) Why do you think the poet does not
mention “the departure of the forest from the house” in her letters? (Could it
be that we are often silent about important happenings that are so unexpected
that they embarrass us? Think about this again when you answer the next set of
questions.)
Ans: i) The poet says that the full moon is sparkling in the open sky in the
new evening at the beginning of the third stanza. And at the end of the stanza,
she describes that the moon breaks into pieces like a broken mirror and
radiates on the tops of the tallest oak trees. As the trees move outside, they
cover a portion of the shine of the moon and it tends to be seen distinctly in
parts. This is the reason; it appears to be that the moon has broken into
pieces.
ii) At the point
when the trees move out of the house, the glasses break and the murmurs of the
trees disappear, going out quietly of the house.
iii) The poet
barely specifies about "the departure of the forest from the house"
in her letters since it is human, who could have done without nature in any
case. Thus, perhaps, the poet currently believes that no one would be keen on
thinking about the efforts that the trees are making to set free themselves. On
the off chance that different men thought often about the trees, they would not
have destroyed them. It appears to be that this entire beauty of trees moving
back to forests can be seen and felt exclusively by the poet.
4)
Now that you have read the poem in detail, we can begin to ask what the poem
might mean. Here are two suggestions. Can you think of others?
i) Does the poem present a conflict between man
and nature? Compare it with A Tiger in the Zoo. Is the poet suggesting that plants
and trees, used for ‘interior decoration’ in cities while forests are cut down,
are ‘imprisoned1, and need to ‘break out’?
ii)
On the other hand, Adrienne Rich has been known to use trees as a metaphor for
human beings: this is a recurrent image in her poetry. What new meanings emerge
from the poem if you take its trees to be symbolic of this particular meaning?
Ans: Since a poem can have different significance for
various readers and the poet can mean two distinct things utilizing a similar
imagery, both these implications can be justified in context of the poem:
i) Indeed, the
poem presents a conflict between man and nature. Man has consistently made a
lot of harm to nature, without understanding that it really is damage to
mankind. Humans cut down forests for forest products, which has destroyed a lot
of normal beauty. By keeping trees inside walls and denying them their normal
home, they are denying them their freedom. That is the reason; the trees need
to move out. Additionally, in the poem A Tiger in the Zoo, the poem shows that
animals feel limited by cages and they want to get free and run crazy in the
open.
ii) Assuming trees
have been utilized as an metaphor for individuals, the poem would imply that
like the trees, humans also need to break free from the limits that life puts
on them. Modern life with a wide range of actual physical comfort has also
brought a great deal of moral downfall. Our lives have become busy and we have
become self centered and greedy. Man would also need to enjoy in the beauty of
nature and go out in the open and be free, actually like trees.
