The Trees-------by Adrienne Rich

Central Idea of he Poem

The poem The Trees’ by Adrienne Rich shows the conflict between man and nature. With the
growth and development of society, human beings have used nature for their own benefit and
caused a lot of harm to it. In order to use natural resources like forests, minerals etc. men have
forgotten the importance of nature. The poet wants to give the message that the presence of a few
trees inside our homes does not become equal to nature, it is a very false idea of nature. Real
nature is outside, in the forests that we have destroyed.
The trees in the speaker’s house want to break the walls of the house and move to the forest
which has become empty. The birds can sit again on their branches, the insects can hide there
and the sun rays can disappear under the shadow of the trees. The poem tells us how the trees
want to break free from the walls that humans have put around them, and go out in the forest.

STANZA-WISE EXPLANATION
Stanza 1
The trees inside are moving out into the forest,
the forest that was empty all these days
where no bird could sit no insect hide
no sun bury its feet in shadow
the forest that was empty all these nights
will be full of trees by morning.

WORD MEANINGS
Empty – vacant, hollow, missing
Bury – cover something so that it is not visible

Exp – The speaker of the poem observes that the trees in his house are moving outside into the
forest which has been empty for a long time. It is important to understand that the trees are not
actually moving, but it has been used as an imagery by the poet to show the destroyed forests and
the false nature that humans have tried to keep in their houses. Since the forest outside was
empty, no birds could sit on the branches of trees, no insects could hide in the trees and sunlight
could never disappear under the shadows of the trees. The speaker feels that the empty forest will
be full of trees by the next morning.

Stanza 2
All night the roots work to
disengage themselves from the cracks
In the veranda floor.
The leaves strain toward the glass
small twigs stiff with exertion
long-cramped boughs shuffling under the roof
like newly discharged patients
half-dazed, moving to the clinic doors.
WORD MEANINGS
Disengage – get free
Veranda – the space right outside the house but attached to it
Strain – make a lot of effort
Twigs – the topmost part of branches
Stiff – hard
Exertion – pressure
Cramped – shrunk
Boughs – larger branches of a tree
Shuffling – slow dragging motion without lifting feet
Half-dazed – half shocked/or half asleep

Exp – It seems like the trees work silently in the night in order to complete their mission of
getting free from the boundaries of the house. Therefore, they work all night to free themselves
through the cracks on the veranda floor. The leaves of the trees try very hard to put a lot of
pressure on the glass so that they could break it. The small twigs have become very hard due to
applying so much pressure to free themselves. The larger branches of the trees that have shrunk
because of being inside the walls and under the roof, where they cannot grow much. They try to
move slowly from there and look like newly discharged patients from a hospital, who become
half-shocked on coming to the outside world.

Stanza 3
I sit inside, doors open to the veranda
writing long letters
in which I scarcely mention the departure
of the forest from the house.
The night is fresh, the whole moon shines
in a sky still open
the smell of leaves and lichen
still reaches like a voice into the rooms.

WORD MEANINGS
Scarcely – hardly
Departure – leaving
Lichen – crusty patches on tree trunks

Exp – The speaker, who could be the poet herself, sits in her house, writing long letters, the
doors of which open to the veranda. She hardly mentions in her letters about the trees that are
moving out to the empty forest. It is a full moon night where the moon is shining in the open sky
and the night is very fresh. The poet can smell the leaves and lichens coming from the trees that
reach her like a voice.

Stanza 4
My head is full of whispers which tomorrow will be silent.
Listen. The glass is breaking.
The trees are stumbling forward
into the night. Winds rush to meet them.
The moon is broken like a mirror, its pieces flash now in the crown of the tallest oak.

WORD MEANINGS
Whishpers – low hushing voices
Silent – quite
Stumbling – walk unsteadily
Rush – hurry
Flash – shine
Oak – The name of a tree

Exp – The speaker listens to the sounds coming from the leaves and lichens of the trees. These
sounds will not be there in the morning as the trees will move out to the forest in the night and
will not be in the house by morning. Now, the speaker can hear the glass breaking due to the
efforts of the twigs. As the glass breaks, the trees hurry outside and in doing so, they fall on each
other and get struck at different places. As the trees go in the open, it seems like the wind is
moving fast towards them to meet them. The tail trees can finally stand straight as they are free.
They are so tall that they have broken the moon into pieces like a broken mirror. The moon now
sits like the crowns on the heads of the tall oak trees. Again, the use of moon is an imagery to
show that between the ground and the sky stands the trees; and one can only look at parts of the
moon, and not the full moon, from under the trees’.

Poetic Devices
Simile-- It is used to draw a clear comparison between two or more things or people
having same qualities using words ‘like’ and ‘as’.

(i) long-cramped boughs shuffling like newly discharged patients

(ii) the smell of leaves and lichens Still reaches like a voice into the rooms.
(iii) The moon is broken like a mirror.

Imagery------The words and phrases in the poem create their visual representations in
mind. It is done through the use of figurative language to create pictures and visuals in
the mind of the readers to convey the views and thoughts of the poet. In short, the poem
floats and moves through or imagination.
The whole poem keeps creating visuals in our mind about the struggle of the trees and
different incidents and happenings associated with it.

See the following examples:

 The trees inside are moving out into the forest.

 The forest that was empty all these days
where no bird could sit …
 Like newly discharged patients
half-dazed, moving
to the clinic doors …..
 The glass is breaking
The trees are stumbling forward ….
Its pieces flash now in the crown of the tallest oak---
(i) Its pieces flash now in the crown of the tallest oak.

ALLITERATION: the smell of leaves and lichens

Rhyme scheme
There is no rhyme. The Poem is in free verse.

Repetition: Words or lines are repeated to emphasize a feeling or idea, create rhythm,
and or develop a sense of urgency.
‘The forest that was empty’ (in the first stanza)

Personification: A prominent figure of speech in which a thing is given human

attributes.
See the following examples as how the trees, the sun and the winds are shown as
behaving like human beings.

 The trees inside are moving out into the forest.

 No sun bury its feet in shadow.
 All night the roots work.
 Winds rush to meet them.
Symbolism: The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.
The poet uses ‘the trees’ to connote the significance of forests and raise the issue of
‘deforestation’

People keep plants and trees in their homes and have the false impression that it can
replace the lost forests. The poet uses the trees as symbolism to say that the issue of
deforestation can be tackled only by planting trees.

Alliteration: A literary device in which a series of words begin with same consonant
sound.
Example: long leaves, leaves and lichen
Metaphor: Metaphor is a literary device used to represent a comparison without using
the words “like” or “as”.
The poet uses ‘trees’ metaphorically to represent helplessness of woman in the
patriarchal society. The metaphor extends throughout the poem and therefore the poem is
a good example of ‘extended metaphor’.
The struggles of the nature or trees to be freed from the confinements of man is compared
to that of the
women’s struggle for the same to get freedom from the men dominated society.

Enjambment: Enjambment is a poetic technique in which a sentence or phrase is

continued over multiple lines of poetry, without a pause or break at the end of each line.
The poem is a good example of enjambment. Every stanza of this poem has lines
continuing to next lines without punctuation.

Q.1.Can there be a forest without trees ? Where are the trees in this poem, and
where do they go ?
Answer:
There can’t be a forest without trees because trees are actually the forest itself.
The trees in the poem are merely decorative plants and bushes. These are grown
in the houses for decoration and beautification. They grow in small pots and
pans. These are kept in verandas or drawing rooms as decoration pieces only.

1. Find, in the first stanza, three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest.
2. What picture do these words create in your mind:”… sun bury its feet in
shadow …” ? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet’ ?
Answer:

1. The three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest are- no birds can
sit on them, no insects can hide in them and the sun cannot bury its feet,
that is the sunlight cannot disappear under the shadow of the trees.
2. The picture is that of the sun- the sunlight burying itself in the shadow of
the trees. The sun’s feet refers to the heat and rays of the sun that fall on
the ground. In a forest full of trees, the shadow of the trees hides the
sunrays and it appears as if the sun is burying its feet in the shadow of the
trees.
Question 2.

1. Where are the trees in the poem ? What do their roots, their leaves, and
their twigs do ?
2. What does the poet compare their branches to ?
Answer:
 1. The trees in the poem are in the pots and pans. Their roots struggle to free
themselves from the cracks in the veranda door. Their leaves make efforts
to go toward the glass. Small twigs become stiff and hard due to exertion
while the long-cramped boughs (branches) move slowly.
2. The poet compares their branches to the newly discharged patients
moving out towards the clinic doors in a half-dazed condition, stifled
under the strain of confinement. They are desperate to stretch out in the
open and get a breath of fresh air.
Question 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 ? (V. Imp.)(Board
2017)
(iii) Why do you think the poet does not mention “the departure of the forest
from the house” i

Answer:

(i) (i) The full moon shines brightly in the open sky. ,(ii) In the end, the moon
appears as if it is broken like a mirror into several pieces with the moonlight
rippling over the crown (upper branches and leaves) of the tallest oak tree.
(ii) When the trees leave the house, the house undergoes a change. Its glass is
broken due to the efforts made by the various parts of the tree such as leaves,
twigs and branches to move out of the glass walls. The roots of the trees would
also probably leave cracks in the veranda floor while disengaging themselves. The
smell of leaves and lichens lingers and is strongly felt by the poetess inside the
rooms, like a voice of the trees. Winds rush inside to welcome the trees.
(iii) The poet deliberately does not mention this because it is like the unexpected
happening. It is common and is known to all.

(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 ‘imprisoned’, 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 ?

Answer:

(i) The poem does present a conflict between man and nature. In fact, man has
harmed nature much. He has cut forests and killed wild animals. He keeps wild
animals in zoos as given in ‘A Tiger in the Zoo’. Yes, the plants and trees are really
imprisoned. We must grow them naturally, not inside the houses.

(ii) The new meanings are : men will multiply. They grow like the trees. These are
kept in pots in houses. These trees break the house. So the human beings shall
disturb the ecological balance of nature. At present this is the situation.
Environmental pollution is its effect, Human survival is threatened. Global
warming is there. Soon it will threaten human and other life. The danger
therefore is real.