NCERT Solutions Class 10 English Chapter 7 The Trees Poem

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 zoos. 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 by humans 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.

 

 

ABOUT THE POET
Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She was a famous poet, essayist and feminist. She has published nineteen volumes of poetry, three collections of essays and other writings. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century"

THEME:
The poem has a symbolic meaning, the trees are an extended metaphor for women. The poet says that the women have rested, healed and recovered and are ready for their primary purpose – to renew the empty forest of mankind.
Adrienne Rich’s “The Trees” is a nature poem. Forest is the natural habitat of trees, birds and insects. In the absence of trees in the forest, the ecological balance will be disturbed. In this poem, the poetess has personified nature. Man has confined nature within his four walls. Man has uprooted trees and kept them in the modern artificial glasshouses. But nature can’t be subdued for long. The trees struggle to break the artificial bathers. They become free breaking all the bondages and move towards their natural habitat — the forest. Only there they can grow to the natural vastness, grandeur and dimensions. The poetess tries to convey that like human beings, trees also need freedom. They can get their natural growth and freedom when they are in the forest and not in artificial houses made by human beings.

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 shelterless. 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.

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.

Literary Devices:
Personification: Sun bury it’s feet. Sun has been personified.
Enjambment: Continuation of a sentence to the next line (the forest that was…… trees by morning). Anaphora: 2 lines begin with ‘no’ imagery: “The trees inside are moving out into the forest” – shows kinestatic imagery

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.
Enjambment: continuation of sentence to the next line (the leaves strain……. Half dazed) Simile: trees compared to patients (like newly discharged patients) personification: twigs and boughs have been personified.

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.

Literary Devices:
Alliteration: ‘long letters’ forest from’ ‘sky still’ ‘leaves and lichen’
Enjambment: continuation of sentence to the next line (doors open….the house) Imagery: the poet has tried to create a scene in which she is observing all the things happening (the night is fresh……into the rooms)

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.
Simile: The moon is compared to a mirror (Moon is broken like a mirror)

Difficult Word Meanings

WORD	MEANING	WORD	MEANING
DISENGAGE	REMOVE	STRAIN	PRESSURE
TWIGS	SMALL STEM	EXERTION	EFFORT
CRAMPED	RESTRICTED	BOUGHS	BRANCH
SHUFFLING	MIXING	DISCHARGED	SEND OUT
DAZED	STUN