Poem: The Trees (Adrienne Rich)

• Central Theme

  • Man vs. Nature conflict
  • Confinement of nature in artificial glasshouses
  • Struggle of trees for freedom and liberation
  • Metaphor for women's emancipation and empowerment

• Stanza-wise Breakdown

  • Stanza 1: The Indoor Trees
    • Trees are inside empty houses
    • Roots work all night to disengage from cracks in the veranda floor
    • Leaves strain toward the glass
    • Boughs shuffle under the roof like newly discharged patients
  • Stanza 2: Nighttime Action
    • Sitting inside writing long letters
    • Doors open to the veranda
    • Wind rushes in to meet the trees
    • The moon is broken like a mirror, its pieces flash in the crown of the tall oak
  • Stanza 3: The Forest's Escape
    • The poet's forest is full of whispers
    • Tomorrow the trees will be gone
    • Roots trip roots; glass breaks
    • Trees stumble forward into the night
  • Stanza 4: The Final Triumph
    • The wind blows to meet them
    • The moon breaks like a shattered mirror
    • Trees rush into the open forest
    • Sky receives the tall oak

• Literary Devices & Poetic Techniques

  • Personification
    • Trees working, staggering, and moving like humans
    • Moon broken like a mirror
  • Simile
    • Boughs comparing to newly discharged patients
    • Moon broken like a mirror
  • Enjambment
    • Continuation of sentences without punctuation across lines
  • Imagery
    • Visual: Roots working, glass breaking, moon flashing
    • Auditory: Whispers of the forest

• Key Terms & Vocabulary

  • Disengage: To untangle or free
  • Veranda: A roofed platform along the outside of a house
  • Boughs: Main branches of a tree
  • Discharged: Released from a hospital or confinement
  • Stumble: Trip or momentarily lose balance