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TREES

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12 views1 page

TREES

Uploaded by

vigkavita6
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction - THE TREES

This poem presents a conflict between men and nature. The poetess Adrienne Rich suggests here that
the trees and plants used in the interior decoration in cities are as imprisoned. They need freedom.
These trees want to move out to the forest where trees are decreasing day by day due to
deforestation. The poetess says that everything has a deep desire for freedom. It is necessary for
growth and wellbeing.

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
fulfill 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 can sit
on the branches of trees, no insects can hide in the trees and the sunlightcan 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 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 in 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 odor 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 will become 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

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