Introduction

The Trees shows the conflict between man and nature. Nature is not happy with activities of
human being. 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 men
have forgotten the importance of nature. The trees from the poet’s house are going out of
the forest to free themselves.

Summary
This is a poem about the decorative plants. These plants are grown in houses for
beautification. These grow in small pots and pans. They have taken the place of large forest
trees which have been cut by human beings. This poem presents the picture of harm done
to nature by human beings. Adrienne Rich’s poem ‘The Trees’ is a voice with a body engaged
in activities and sensing intrusions that are not organic to the conventions of a nature poem.
This poem narrates the struggle of a population of trees to escape the confines of a green
house or container of nature. The poet tells us that how trees want to break out of the
bondage of man-made things and reunite with their natural surroundings. The message is
that the forests have disappeared. So people have plant in their homes. Trees are revolting
as they have lost their natural usefulness. No bird nests in them, nor do they spread their
shadows to the tired people.

Explanation

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
Explanation: The poet 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 imaginary by the poet to show the destroyed
forests and the false nature that humans have tried to keep in their houses for creating a
false impression of nature or for decoration. 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 poet says that as the trees are moving
out , the forests which were empty all these nights will be full of trees by the morning.
 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.
Explanation: 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, the roots of the tree
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 window so that they could break it
and go outside. The small twigs have become very hard due to applying so much pressure to
free themselves. The larger branches of the trees have shrunk and had bent because of
being inside all the walls and under the roof , where they cannot grow much. Trees 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.

I sit inside, doors open to the verandah

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
Explanation: The poet sits in her house, writing long letters, with the doors of house
opening to the Veranda. She 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 smell of leaves and lichens reaches the poet like a voice coming from
the rooms of the house.
 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.
Explanation: The poet 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 poet can hear the glass breaking
due to the efforts of the twigs. The trees hurry outside stumbling on each other. As the
trees go in the open, it seems like the wind is moving fast towards them to meet them. After
going out into the forest, the tall trees stand straight in the forest. Its branches cover the
moon due to which it looks like a broken mirror. The broken pieces of the moon seems like a
crown of the tallest oak tree.

Question and Answers

Question 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’?

Answer (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’s ‘feet’ refers to the hot, glowing Sun whose rays fall on the earth. 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. (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?
Answer (i) In the poem, the trees are in the poet’s house. Their roots work all night to break
up 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.
(ii) The poet compares the branches to a newly discharged patients of a hospital who look
half dazed as they move towards the hospital door after a long period of illness and wants
to get out of the hospital as soon as possible. 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.

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 says that the full moon is shining in
the open sky in the fresh night. However , at the end of the stanza, she describes that the
moon breaks into pieces like a broken mirror. This change is caused by the trees that have
made their way from her to outside .As the trees move outside, they cover some of the
shine of the moon and it can be seen only in parts. This is why, it seems that the moon has
broken into pieces.
(ii) When the trees move out of the house, the glasses break and the whispers of the trees
vanish, leaving the house silent.
(iii) The poet does not mention about “the departure of the forest from the house” in her
letters because it is humans, who did not care for nature in the first place. So, maybe, the
poet now thinks that nobody would be interested in knowing about the efforts that the
trees are making in order to set themselves free. If other men cared about the trees, they
would not have destroyed them. It seems that this whole beauty of trees moving back to
forests can be seen and felt only by the poet.

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 (i) Yes, the poem presents a conflict between man and nature. Nature is free and
unbounded whereas man prefer to live in bounded space. Man has always caused much
harm to nature, without realising that it actually is a harm to the humans only. He uses
plants for interior decoration and for that he cut down trees, which has destroyed a lot of
natural beauty. Similarly, in the poem A Tiger in the Zoo, the poet shows that animals feel
bounded by cages and they want to get free and run wild in the open. He kills animals for
food or other purpose and cages them in zoo. The poet feels that trees and animals are
protesting against humans to set them free and work out in open.
(ii) If trees have been used as a metaphor for human beings, then the poem would mean
that like the trees, humans too want to break from the restriction of busy life. They also
wanted to be free from the boundaries that life has put on them. They also wanted to go
out in the nature. They work all day and night to achieve something but they do not enjoy in
doing their work. They feel cramped under the roof of their houses and offices. Man would
also want to enjoy the beauty of nature and go out in the open and be free, just like trees.