The poem ‘The Trees’ presents a conflict between Man and Nature. Discuss.

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Solution

Man has been abusing and misusing nature for his own selfish needs. People cut down forests to make place for houses, offices, malls etc. Ironically, people also then keep plants and trees inside their homes. In the poem, the poet describes a scene where the trees that are inside homes are now moving out into the forests where they belong. This represents nature’s retaliation to its mistreatment at the hand of mankind. If mankind continues to misuse the gifts of nature, nature will find a way to rebel and punish mankind.

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Similar questions

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?

There are two kinds of conflict in the story: between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?

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Q. Referring closely to the poem, Mending Wall, discuss the two attitudes to barriers or walls, as presented in the poem. What, in your opinion, does the poet wish to convey through the poem?

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