Poem 7- The Trees-Adrienne Rich

Summary

In the first stanza, the poetess says that the forest is the actual home of trees. So,
all the trees are moving into the forest, which was empty for a long time. Here,
trees are used as a metaphor by the poetess to show how drastically humans
have destroyed the forests. They have cut down the trees to fulfil their needs and
have confined these trees to the walls of their houses. But now, these trees have
started their movement and are moving towards the forest. Since the forest was
empty, no birds could sit on the branches of trees, no insects could hide in the
trees, and the sunlight could never disappear under the shadow of the trees.
However, now that the trees have started moving, the empty forest will be filled
by the trees by the next morning.

The second stanza explains the effort put in by trees to free themselves from the
boundaries of humans’ houses. The poetess says that the roots of the trees work
all night to separate themselves from the cracks of the veranda floor. The leaves
of the tree try to put pressure on the glass so that they can break the glass
ceiling. The small stems of the tree have become hard due to the continuous
effort to free themselves. The long branches of the tree have shrunken because
of the less space available for them to expand under the roof. Trees move slowly
from home and look like newly discharged patients from the hospital. They are
a little confused while moving to the clinic door as they are not able to believe
that they are coming back to their actual home in the forest.

In the third stanza, the poetess says that she sits inside the home on the veranda
and keeps the doors open. She writes long letters in which she hardly mentions
the departure of trees to their empty forest. It’s night time, and the moon is
shining in the sky. The poetess can smell the odour of leaves and lichen coming
to her. The smell of trees reaches her in a similar way as a voice reaches a room.

In this stanza, the poetess listens to the whisper of the trees leaving the house.
The trees reach the empty forest the next day, and the house becomes silent.
Now, the poetess can hear the sound of glass breaking. As the glass breaks, the
trees move in a hurry, due to which they fall on each other. The trees feel that
the wind is blowing faster as it wants to meet them soon. The trees are so tall
that they break the moon into pieces like a mirror. Now, the moon looks like a
crown on the head of the oak trees.

Questions/ Answers

hinking about the Poem

Question 1.
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…..1′? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet’?
Answer:
1. The three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest are – the sitting of a
bird on trees, the hiding of insects and the sun burying its feet in the shadow of
the forest.
2. The sun’s ‘feet’ refers to the rays of the sun that fall on the earth. When there
is no shadow on the ground, because there are no trees, the rays fall directly on
the ground. In a forest with trees, the shadow hides the sun rays and it seems
that the sun is burying its feet in the shadow that fall from 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. In the poem, the trees are trapped in the poet’s house. Their roots work all
night to disengage themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor. The leaves
try very hard to move towards the glass and put a lot of pressure on it so that it
breaks, while the small twigs get stiff with exertion.
2. The poet compares the branches to newly discharged patients of a hospital.
The large branches of the trees become cramped due to the roof above them,
and when they get free they rush stumblingly to the outside world. While doing
so, they look half-shocked like the patients, who wait for a long time to get out
of the hospital.

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?

(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.)

Answer:

(i) At the beginning of the third stanza, the poet mentions that the full moon is
shining in the open sky in the fresh night. Towards the end of the stanza, she
describes that the moon breaks into many pieces just like a cracked mirror and
shines on the heads of the tallest oak trees. As the trees move outside from her
home, they cover some moonlight and it can be seen only in small portions.
This justifies the poet’s statement that the moon has broken into pieces.
(ii) When the trees move out of the house, the glass breaks and the smell of
leaves and lichen reach the rooms of the house like a voice.

(iii) The poet scarcely mentions “the departure of the forest from the house” in
her letters because human beings generally don’t care for nature in the first
place. Hence, she thinks that nobody would be interested to know how hard the
trees are trying to set themselves free. She also mentions that if humans would
really have cared for the trees, they would never think of destroying them.
Therefore, we can understand that the poet could feel the whole beauty of trees
moving back to the forest and she was immensely happy to realise it.

Question 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 ‘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:

The poem may connote different meanings to different readers. The poet tries to
explain two different things using the same metaphors in the poem.

(i) Yes, the poem presents a conflict between man and nature. Humans have
always had the tendency to damage or harm nature without even realizing the
usefulness and the benefits that mankind derives from it. They do mass
deforestation which disturbs the environmental balance and results in
destruction of natural scenic beauty. Man tries to contain plants and trees within
limited spaces that deny their natural freedom. Due to this reason, the branches
of the trees want to spread themselves and feel the fresh air outside. Similarly,
in the poem ‘A Tiger in the Zoo’, the poet shows that animals which are kept in
cages are unable to enjoy their freedom as even they want to be set free and run
around freely in the open space.

(ii) If trees have been used as a metaphor for human beings, then it could be said
that just like trees, humans would also like to break away from the shackles of
their busy schedules and restricting boundaries that life puts on them. Although
men strive hard in their daily routines to earn a living, they don’t always have
the privilege to enjoy its benefits. Modern life brings in a lot of physical
comfort, but also has its equal share of drawbacks. Hence, even man wants to
break free from all his tasks and enjoy the peaceful nature out in the open just
like the trees.
Question 5:

You may read the poem ‘On Killing a Tree’ by Gieve Patel (Beehive – Textbook
in English for Class IX, NCERT). Compare and contrast it with the poem you
have just read.

Answer:

Activity to be done by yourself.