AMITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, NOIDA
The Trees by Adrienne Rich, Class X
Poem at a Glance
● The poet talks about trees as a metaphor for women who have been healed and are ready to move
out of their homes to fulfill their primary purpose – to renew the forest of mankind.
● As women have remained indoors, the forest has become empty, the birds and insects have been
rendered shelterless. The Sun’s rays are not blocked by tree trunks or leaves and hence fall upon the
earth directly.
● The trees are desperate to move out just like a newly discharged patient.
● At night time, 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.
LITERARY APPRECIATION
1. Rhyme Scheme – No rhyme scheme, the poem is written in free verse.
2. Personification: 1. Sun bury its feet. Sun has been personified.
2. Twigs and boughs have been personified.
3. Enjambment: Continuation of a sentence to the next line (the forest that was…… trees by
morning).
4. Anaphora: 2 lines begin with ‘no’
5. Imagery: Imagery, in a literary or poetic sense, is the author's use of description and vivid language,
deepening the reader's understanding of the work, by appealing to the senses.
● “The trees inside are moving out into the forest” – shows kinestatic 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)
6. Simile: A simile is a comparison between two things using the words 'like' and 'as'.
● Trees compared to patients (like newly discharged patients)
● The moon is compared to a mirror (Moon is broken like a mirror)
7. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the same letter sound across the start of several words
in a line of text. e.g., ‘long letters’ forest from’ ‘sky still’ ‘leaves and lichen’
RTC 1
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.
(i) Where is the speaker? vp - inside her house
(ii) Why does the poet not mention the departure of the forest? (2 marks )
vp - She does not mention about the departure of the trees because she knows perfectly well that the trees
are being kept captive in human surroundings and they must go back into the forests where they belong.
(iii) How do the leaves and lichen talk to each other? vp - the smell.
RTC 2
All night the roots work
to disengage themselves from the cracks
in the veranda floor.
The leaves strain towards 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) What are the roots trying to do? Vp - to break the veranda floor.
(ii) Why are the small twigs stiff? Vp - straining to break the glass
(iii) What does the poet mean by ‘the clinic doors”? Vp - suffocated and choked in cramped spaces
(iv) Identify the poetic device used in ‘long-cramped boughs shuffling under the roof
like newly discharged patients.
SHORT ANSWERS QUESTION (40-50 Words)
Q1. How does the poet describe the growth of the trees inside the house?
vp: These trees grow in pots and pans. So their roots feel cramped. These roots try to free themselves from
the cracks of the veranda floor. The leaves need light. So they move towards the glass. The twigs are stiff
and the boughs are like the newly discharged patients coming out of clinic doors.
Q2. Why is the description of the moon different in the beginning and at the end of the third stanza?
vp: At the beginning of the third stanza, the poet says that one can see the whole moon shining in the open
sky, but in the end, the moon seems to be broken like a mirror and its pieces shine in the crown of the
tallest oak tree. The change is caused by the shifting of the trees outside.
LONG ANSWER QUESTION (100-120 words)
Q1. The poem ‘Trees’ appears to be about trees, environment, deforestation and afforestation. On a
deeper level, we discover that Adrienne Rich is expressing her concern about women and their
emancipation. Elaborate with reference to the poem.
vp: Literally the poem is about trees and nature. The poem emphasises that man has spoiled the
equilibrium of the ecosystem.
The poet says that the forests got empty due to deforestation by humans. Initially the plants and trees were
meant to grow in open forests but men uprooted them from their native place and kept them inside his
own house where the trees felt strangled. It gives us a moral that we should not interfere with the natural
process of plants’ growth.
On a deeper level, Adrienne Rich is using the metaphor trees for women whose basic rights of freedom and
expression have been seized by the patriarchal society. Through this poem the poetess wants to make us
aware that women emancipation is lacking and it must be taken care of else they may revolt for their
freedom.
