The Trees

Adrienne Rich

The Trees is a short symbolic poem focusing on the movement of trees that are initially indoors but seeking to escape to freedom in the forest. The trees represent nature but also the nature of being - womanhood in particular. What makes this poem unusual is the speaker's attitude towards the trees.

Summary

The poet talks about trees symbolically. They refer to women who have been healed and are ready to move out of their houses to fulfil their primary purpose - to renew the forest of mankind. As women have remained indoors, the forest has become empty, the birds and insects rendered shelter less. The Sun’s rays do not have the tree trucks and leaves to fall upon and thus, reach the earth. She says that the forest will be full of trees the next morning. The roots of the trees are working hard to separate from the floor of the veranda where they have remained fixed. The leaves and branches are moving towards the glass windows. They are desperate to move out just like a newly discharged patient who has not recovered completely, moves to the exit door of the hospital in a hurry. The poet is sitting in her house with the doors of the veranda open. She is writing letters but does not mention this movement of the trees. It is night time, the sky is clear and a bright moon is visible. She can smell the leaves and lichen which seem to be calling out desperately. She hears the glass of the window pane breaking. The trees are moving out and the fast blowing wind embraces them.  As the trees have reached the forest, the tall and strong oak tree overshadows the moon and it seems that the moon has been broken into several pieces.

Word Meaning

Inside - in the internal part  अंदर में | Empty -vacant खाली | Disengage - separate अलग करना | Cracks -  small breaking दरारें | Strain - make   effort  to move कोशिश करना | Towards -  near समीप | Twigs - branches   टहनियाँ | Stiff - hard  सख्त | Exertion -  tiredness थकावट | Boughs -  branches टहनियाँ | Shuffling -  moving repeatedly बार-बार हिलना एक  अवस्था था से दूसरी अवस्था में | Discharged -  to give leave छुट्टी देना | half Dazed -  half sleeping आधी  निंद्रा में | Cramped - Contracted   सिकुड़ी हुई | Scarcely -  hardly बठिंडा से | Lichen -  crusty patches काई | Whispers -  speak silently धीरे धीरे बोलना | Stumbling -  moving forward   आगे बढ़ना |

 

Question/Answers

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...”? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet’?

Ans: (i) 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. (ii) The sun radiates heat and the given words create a picture of the hot, radiating sun cooling its feet in the cool shadow of the forest. The sun’s ‘feet’ refers to its rays that reach the earth.

 

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) In the poem, the trees are in the poet’s house. Their roots work all night to disengage themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor. The leaves make efforts to move towards the glass, while the small twigs get stiff with exertion. (ii) The poet compares the ‘long-cramped’ branches that have been shuffling under the roof to newly discharged patients who look half-dazed as they move towards the hospital doors after long illnesses and wait to get out of the hospital. The branches also have cramped under the roof and want to get out into the open to spread themselves in fresh air.

 

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?

Ans: (i) In the beginning of the third stanza, the poet says that the moon is shining in the open sky in the fresh night. However, at the end of the stanza, she describes the moon as broken into many pieces such as a shattered mirror. This change is caused by the trees that have made their way from her home to outside. Their branches have risen into the sky, blocking the moon, such that the moon seems to be broken into many pieces. These pieces can be seen flashing at the top of the tallest oak tree. (ii) When the trees move out of the house, the glass gets broken and the smell of the leaves and lichens still reaches the rooms of the house.

 

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: (i) Yes, the poem presents a conflict between man and nature. While nature is more free and unbounded, man prefers to live in bounded spaces and also wants to curb nature. He uses plants for interior decoration of houses, cuts trees to make a house for himself, kills animals for food or other purposes and cages them in zoo. In all these ways, man curbs nature and denies plants and animals the freedom in which they should live. The poem shows that trees and plants are rebelling against man as they strive to work their way out into the open. For instance, in the poem 'A Tiger in the Zoo', the poet presents the fact that animals feel bounded by cages. They can only take a few steps inside the cage, whereas they really want to run and leap into the open. This signifies the fact that plants and animals feel caged and want to break out from the imprisonment at the hands of humans. (ii) If trees are symbolic of human beings, then it could be said that humans too want to break away from the shackles of the busy and selfish lives they lead. They also want to go out into the nature and be free. They work all day and sometimes all night to try and achieve something though they do not have the time to enjoy it. They keep striving hard in their routines as they feel cramped under the roofs of their homes and offices. Even they want to break free and go out into the peaceful nature.

 

Moral

In short, not tallying things up is one hard lesson for us needy people to learn, but The Giving Tree teaches it so well. She gives and gives and gives, never expecting anything in return, never asking for her due, never REMINDING the Boy of all she has sacrificed. It's not martyrdom, it's just unchecked altruism.

 

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