English Notes

Mrs Naina Kacker

X
A, B, C, D
English
THE TREES
 THE TREES
By Adrienne Rich
Summary
The poem The Trees’ is about plants that we use for decorating our house. These
plants are grown in small pots and pans to beautify houses. Human beings have
confined nature within their four walls. They have uprooted trees from the large forests
and kept them in artificial glasshouses. This poem portrays how humans have harmed
nature for their selfish needs. The poem, ‘The Trees’ written by Adrienne Rich is about
decorative pants. These plants are grown within the four walls and in no way, they can
help the birds and insects. Birds cannot sit on the branches and the insects cannot hide
in them. They do not give any shade. Their twigs are stiff. Their boughs are like a newly
discharged patient. They are devoid of light. Their leaves rush towards the glass
window for light because they feel suffocated in their small pots and pans. The poet is
sitting inside her room. She is writing long letters. It is the night time and she can sense
the smell of the leaves and lichen reaching inside her room. The poet has a strong
feeling of desire that these trees should make all efforts to get light and air. ‘The Trees’
is an extended metaphor--- the trees are indeed people, specifically, females who need
healing or having been healed, are now ready for their true purpose, renewing the
empty forest.

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.

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 sunlight can 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.

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.

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.

I sit inside, doors open to the veranda

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.
My head is full of whispers
which tomorrow will be silent.

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 odour of leaves and lichen coming to her. The smell of
trees reaches her in a similar way as a voice reaches a room.

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.

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 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.

Theme:
On the superficial level, the poem deals with the theme of the conflict between Man and
Nature. Man tries to curtail the freedom of nature by removing natural objects from their
from their natural habitat and thus disturb the ecological balance. Nature always strives
for its freedom and tries to break free from the confinement imposed on it by human
beings.
On a deeper level, the poem also emphasizes the need of giving freedom to people of
all genders, races and classes. Particularly, the poem metaphorically emphasizes the
need of freedom for women who have been subjugated to slavery in the patriarchal
society.
Message: The message of the poem is loud and clear. It is not easy to suppress
nature, animals or human beings. You may confine them, suppress them, obstruct their
growth, restrict their freedom and progress but they will find a way to break free of all
their shackles and charter their own path of freedom and growth. Trees symbolize
human beings particularly women. When trees come together, they make a forest, a
world of their own, a world of freedom and equality for all. Similarly when women come
together they make a movement, they create a united front of resistance, regeneration
and renaissance. Nothing and nobody can stop the growth of natural objects and
human beings. Therefore, instead of suppressing them, it is essential to provide them a
conducive environment.

Thinking about the Poem (Page 100-101)

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 listed below: (a)
the sitting of a bird on trees, (b) the hiding of insects on the trees, (c) the sun burying its
feet in the shadow of the forest.

(ii) The sun’s ‘feet’ refers to the heat and rays of the sun that fall on the ground. Since
there are no trees, there will be no shadow, the sun rays will fall on the ground directly.
However, in a forest full of trees, the shadow hides the sun rays and it appears that the
sun is burying its feet in the shadow of the trees in the forest.

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 confined within the limits of the poet’s house.
Their roots work all night to separate themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor.
The leaves make attempts to move towards the glass and exert pressure to break it,
while the small twigs get stiff and tight with exertion.

(ii) The poet compares the ‘long-cramped’ branches shuffling under the roof to newly
discharged patients from a hospital who look half-disoriented and confused after
suffering long illnesses as they move towards the clinic doors. The large branches of
the trees become cramped under the roof as they want to be set free so that they are
able to spread themselves fully in the open air outside.

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 fact when
the poet says that the moon has broken into pieces.

(ii) When the trees move out of the house, the glasses break and the smell of leaves
and lichen still reach the rooms of the house like a voice.

(iii) The poet scarcely mentions about “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 have really 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 try 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 harder
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.

Extra Question Answer:

Q1. “All night the roots work.” How do the roots work?
Ans. The roots of the tree growing in the veranda of the narrator’s house work all night
to try hard to break the floor. The cracks have been formed out of which the roots make
great efforts to come out to be liberated from the cramped space. The struggle of the
roots is symbolic of the struggle of women for freedom in a gender biased society as
women try to uproot their enslavement by men.
Q2. What does the poet compare the branches of the trees to and why?
Ans. The poet compares the branches of the trees to the patients as the branches are
cramped under the suppression of the enclosure and move clumsily to break the glass
ceiling to get out into the open. Similarly, the patients have been in the hospital, away
from their homes. When they are discharged, they walk unsteadily towards the door as
they are still under the impact of anesthesia or medicines. Both the branches and the
trees leave their unwelcome environment to go to their natural habitats.

Q3. What whispers does the narrator hear? What will happen to these whispers the next
day?
Ans. The narrator can hear the whispering, low sounds of the rustling of the leaves, the
chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects. As the trees are moving out leaving the
confinement of the house, there will be no trees the next day, nor will there be birds and
insects, for they will move away with the trees. Therefore, there will be no sounds for
the narrator to hear.

Q4. What do trees symbolize in the poem?

Ans. The trees in the poem have been removed from their natural environment and
imprisoned in the artificial environment of the house. They represent all the human
beings who are denied human rights of free development, particularly women, who are
enslaved, ill treated and exploited in a male dominated society. They will have to
struggle to rebel against their slavery to be able to enjoy the freedom given to them by
nature.

Q5. How are the trees personified in the poem?

Ans. The trees are personified in the poem as they are projected as human beings,
especially women, who feel suppressed and cramped in the closed space and who
work to attain freedom. The various parts of the tree – the roots, the leaves, the
branched – work like human beings and ultimately are shown to move away to be
embraced by the winds.

Answer in detail
Q1. Do you think the poem ‘The Trees’ is an allegory that treats another subject under
its surface subject?
Ans. The poem is certainly an allegory (symbolic) and has two layers of meanings.
Trees have been treated both literally and symbolically. In fact, Adrienne Rich, has
frequently used trees to symbolize human beings, particularly women.
In the poem, the tree which has been grown in the unnatural environment of a house,
craves for freedom so that it can go back to the open environment of the forests. All the
parts of the tree – the roots, leaves, twigs and boughs try to break free from the stifling
space. The narrator is confident that the tree will move out to the forest and attain
freedom.

The poem, on the deeper level, is a voice against the exploitation and domination of the
weaker human beings by the stronger ones. All human beings should have the right to
grow and live freely in the open environment. It is really cruel to enslave and exploit
other human beings. No human being wants a life of slavery. If suppressed and
dominated, the down trodden people are likely o rebel and throw away the chains of
slavery. The chains of caste, class, race and gender imprison human beings. But
ultimately the sufferers try to break these shackles to claim their right to equality which
they achieve through collective struggle.
The trees particularly symbolize women who have suffered domination and slavery in
the male- dominated society and want to escape to the world of freedom. However, they
have now raised their voice against their ill- treatment by men and are fighting for their
freedom and equality.
Literary Devices:

1. Personification:
Examples:
 The trees inside are moving out into the forest,
 no sun bury its feet in shadow
 All night the roots work
 Winds rush to meet them.

2. Repetition:
Example: In the first stanza, the poet repeats the line “the forest that was empty all
these…” to emphasize the emptiness of the forest.

3. Anaphora:
Example: no insect hide
no sun bury its feet in shadow
(shows that the forest was without trees and without its usual activities)

4. Metaphor:
its pieces flash now in the crown
of the tallest oak.
(Here the word crown is used for the top of the oak tree.)

The poem has extended metaphors of trees (Stanza 1), the forest (Stanza 1), the night
(Stanza 3& 4) and the moon (Stanza 3 & 4).

5. Simile:
 like newly discharged patients
 still reaches like a voice into the rooms.
 The moon is broken like a mirror,

6. Enjambment

7. Imagery:
1. The trees inside are moving out into the forest,

2. the forest that was empty all these days

where no bird could sit
no insect hide
no sun bury its feet in shadow

3. like newly discharged patients

half-dazed, moving
to the clinic doors.

4. The night is fresh, the whole moon shines

in a sky still open
Reference to Context:

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.

i. Choose the option that lists the examples of exertion.

1. Neha had been up all-night keeping accounts and now she‘s resting.
2. Swati was running for five miles non-stop last evening.
3. Hemant is watching his favourite show and having snacks.
4. Sachin helped a senior citizen board a flight in the morning.

a) 1, 2 b) 2, 3 c) 3, 4 d) 1, 4

ii Choose the image that represents the main object of the extract literally.

a) Image (i) b) Image (ii) c) Image (iii) d) Image (iv)

iii Choose the correct option that mentions the correct poetic device against the correct
example.

a) Image (i) b) Image (ii) c) Image (iii) d) Image (iv)

 iv The phrase, ―newly discharged
patients‖ suggests that the trees were
a) angry or irritated because they were
not receiving medical help or remedy, but
now they're cured and want to stay away
from clinics.
b) discontent or disturbed and in need of
support from the clinic staff, but now their
complaints have been addressed and
they are content to live their lives.
c) misunderstood or mistreated and in need of medical attention or care, but now they're
healthy and ready to step out and promote the facility.
d) unwell or unhappy and in need of medical help or remedy, but now they're cured and
ready to venture out and live their lives.

v The extract talks about trees breaking out of confined spaces. This is a reference to
women
a) shifting away from their domestic confines.
b) seeking revenge for their age-old oppressions.
c) realizing the difference between friends and enemies.
d) focusing on their family and home

vi. Based on the extract, choose the option that lists the most likely symbolic meaning of
(1) – (4) respectively.
a) caution, women, restrictions, individuality
b) individuality, caution, ideas, women
c) restrictions, women, opportunities, individuality
d) opportunities, support, caution, women

Art Integrated Activity: Speech Writing

Imagine yourself to be the tallest oak among the trees. Write a speech motivating the
other trees to work hard in order to move out of the veranda into the forest. You may
use the cue given below-

The Importance of Working Together Dear fellow trees, I see how charged up you all
are to move away from the confines of…(continue)

Resources & Links

For Summary
https://byjus.com/cbse-notes/class-10-english-the-treessummary

For MCQs

https://www.oppnmedia.com/10thclass-english-mcqs-mocktest-and-sample-papers/