The Trees

The Trees Can there be a forest without trees? Where are the trees in this poem, and where do they go? The trees inside are moving out into the forest, the forest that was empty all these days the forest that was empty all these nights will be full of trees by morning. to disengage themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor. long-cramped boughs shuffling under the roof in which I scarcely mention the departure of the forest from the house. The night is fresh, the whole moon shines 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. 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. The Trees . 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? . You may read the poem ‘On Killing a Tree’ by Gieve Patel ( Beehive – Textbook in English for Class IX, NCERT). Compare and contrast it with the poem you have just read. Homophones Can you find the words below that are spelt similarly, and sometimes even pronounced similarly, but have very different meanings? Check their pronunciation and meaning in a dictionary. • The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. • When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. • The insurance was invalid for the invalid.