The Trees

by Adrienne Rich

Presented By:- Santhosh Chungath

 Key Points
• The poet wants to show that everything has
deep desire to acquire freedom.
• We must confirm to the natural laws.
• Can there be a forest without trees?
• Where are the trees in this poem?
• And where do they go !
 Adrienne Rich
• New York Times describes, Adrienne Rich as
“among the most influential writers of the
feminist movement.”
• Adrienne Cecile Rich, (May 16, 1929 – March
27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and
feminist.
• She was called "one of the most widely read
and influential poets of the second half of the
20th century",
• Her first collection of poetry, A Change of World, got
(selected by renowned poet W. H. Auden) the Yale
Series of Younger Poets Award.
• She has written several pieces that explicitly tackle the
rights of women in society.
• Her book, Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law is said to be
the first work that discusses this subject matter.
• In the book, she offers a critical analysis of the life of
being both a mother and a daughter-in-law, and the
impact of their gender in their lives.
• Besides poems and novels, Rich also wrote and
published a number of nonfiction books that tackle
feminist issues.
• Some of these books are: Of Woman Born,
Motherhood as Experience and Institution, Blood,
Bread and Poetry, etc.
• Especially the Bread and Poetry contains the famous
feminist essay entitled "Compulsory Heterosexuality
and Lesbian Existence", and Feminism and
Community.
• Rich prefers to use the term "women's liberation"
rather than feminism.
• For her, the latter term is more likely to induce
resistance from women of the next generation.
• She fears that the term-feminism- would amount to
nothing more than a label if it is used extensively.
• The term women's liberation means that women can
finally be free from factors that can be seen as
oppressive to their rights.
• Given the feminist conditions during the 50s – 70s era, it
can be said that Rich's works on feminism are
revolutionary.
• Her views on equality and the need for women to maximize
their potential can be seen as progressive during her time.
• For Rich, society as a whole is founded on patriarchy and as
such it limits the rights for women.
• For equality to be achieved between the sexes, the
prevailing notions will have to be readjusted to fit the
female perspective.
• she writes openly about her outrage with the
patriarchal nature of the greater society.
• She becomes an example for other women to
follow in the hopes that continued proactive work
against sexism will eventually counteract it
• Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on a
person's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone,
but it primarily affects women and girls.
 Feminism
• Feminism is a range of social movements,
political movements, and ideologies that share
a common goal: to define, establish, and
achieve the political, economic, personal, and
social equality of the sexes.
 Literal Summary
• The Trees’ written by Adrienne Rich, is a poem about
decorative plants.
• These plants are grown in houses in small pots and pans.
• They are not useful for birds and insects.
• Birds can’t sit on the branches. Insects can’t hide in
them.
• They don’t 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 poetess is sitting inside her room. She is writing
long letters.
• It is night time.
• She feels the smell of leaves and lichen reaching inside
her room.
• The poetess longs that these trees should strive to get
light and air.
• They become free breaking all the bondages and
move towards their natural habitat — the forest.
• Only there they can grow to the natural vastness,
grandeur and dimensions.
• The poetess tries to convey that like human
beings trees also need freedom.
• They can get their natural growth and freedom
when they are in the forest and not in artificial
houses made by human beings.
 Manusmruti IX.III
पिता रक्षति कौमारे भर्ता रक्षति यौवने ।
रक्षन्ति स्थविरे पुत्रा न स्त्री स्वातन्त्र्यमर्हति

pitā rakṣati kaumāre bhartā rakṣati yauvane

rakṣanti sthavire putrā na strī svātantryamarhati

The father guards her during virginity, the husband

guards her in youth, the sons guard her in old age; the
woman is never fit for independence.
 The Central Theme & Idea
• The “I,” the voice of the speaker in the poem,
is a voice with a body engaged in activities and
sensing intrusions that are not organic to the
conventions of a nature poem.
• in fact, an (un)natural poem that narrates the
struggle of a population of trees to escape the
confines of a greenhouse.
• It’s a short symbolic poem that focuses on the
movement of trees that are initially indoors
but seeking to escape to freedom in the
forest.
• The poet talks about trees symbolically.
• The trees represent nature but also the nature
of being - womanhood in particular.
• They refer to women who have been healed and are
ready to move out of their houses 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 rendered
shelter less.
• Trees are referred to women who have been healed
and are ready to move out of their houses to fulfill
their primary purpose - to renew the forest of
mankind.
 Poetic Devices
• Repetition(anaphora) occurs in the first stanza...the
forest that was empty ...reinforcing the idea that
previously there was no life outside. Take note also of -
where no bird/no insect/no sun.
• Similes, in the second, third and final stanza involve
both human and domestic elements - like newly
discharged patients/like a voice/like a mirror.
• Personification is to be found in the first stanza - no sun
bury its feet in shadow...and the second - small twigs
stiff with exertion/long-cramped boughs shuffling....and
the fourth stanza - The trees are stumbling forward
• Imagery: Its pieces flash now in the crown of the
tallest oak.
• Night is fresh, the whole moon shines - Visual sense.
• Smell of leaves and lichen - Olfactory sense.
• Enjambment : The sentence is being continued to the
next line without a break - (the forest that was...trees
by morning).
• Alliteration : It is the repetition of a letter at the start
of closely placed words.
• The repetition of the letter - L in "long letters. "F in
"forest from. "S in "sky still.“ L in "leaves and lichens."
• Rhyme scheme: No rhyme scheme. It is written in free
verse.