THE TREES (First Flight)

ABOUT THE POET

Adrienne Rich was born in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. in 1929. She is the author of nearly twenty volumes of poetry, and has been called a feminist and a radical poet.

The Trees
Stanza 1
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.
All night the roots work
to disengage themselves from the cracks
in the veranda floor.

Stanza 2
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 sit inside, doors open to the veranda
writing long letters
in which I scarcely mention the departure
of the forest from the house.

Stanza 3
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.
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.
GLOSSARY

to disengage themselves: to separate themselves 

Strain: make efforts to move

bough: branch

shuffling: moving repeatedly from one position to another 

lichen: crusty patches or bushy growth on tree trunks/bare ground formed by association of fungus and alga.

1. Find, in the first stanza, three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest.
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
2. 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’?
The sun radiates heat and the given words create a picture of the hot, radiating sun cooling its feet in the cool shadow of the forest.
3. Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, their leaves, and their twigs do?
In the poem, the trees are in the poet's house. Their roots work all night to disengage themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor. The leaves make efforts to move towards the glass, while the small twigs get stiff with exertion.
4. What does the poet compare their branches to?
The poet compares the branches to patients who were newly discharged from the hospital. The tree branches are cramped under the house's roof. So, when they get out, they feel relieved to finally leave the place they didn't want to be in, similar to hospital patients.
5. How does the poet describe the moon: (a) at the beginning of the third stanza, and (b) at its end? What causes this change?
In the beginning of the third stanza, the poet describes the moon saying that it is full and shining in the night sky. However, at the end of the stanza, she describes the moon as broken into many pieces that are similar to a shattered mirror.
6. What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
When the trees move out of the house, the glass gets broken and the winds rush to meet the trees which are stumbling forward in the night. However, the poet feels that the smell of the leaves of the trees and lichens still reaches the rooms of her house.
7. 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.)
The poet hardly mentions 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.
8. 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’?

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) 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?

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 homeless. 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. Similar to woman the trees are making efforts to set themselves free.
9. Can there be a forest without trees? Where are the trees in this poem, and where do they go?
There can’t be a forest without trees because trees are actually the forest itself. The trees in the poem are merely decorative plants and bushes. These are grown in the houses for decoration and beautification. They grow in small pots and pans. These are kept in verandas or drawing rooms as decoration pieces only

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. 

1. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 

2. When shot at, the Dove dove, into the bushes. 

3. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.