The Trees Are Down

In the poem "The Trees Are Down", a woman witnesses the whole process of destruction of high plane-trees in her neighborhood by the loggers. She has a close connection with the trees and the nature, which is shown by her strong feeling towards the destruction of the trees. "Half the spring, for me, will have gone with them" denotes this intimacy. The writer identifies herself with the trees, and so she has strong feelings when the trees are brought down by the men with the 'Whoops' and the 'Whoas'. The writer shows her sympathy towards the trees and also human beings for their ignorance to destroy the nature which put themselves in a disadvantaged position.

The poem is stanzaic in structure, consisting 4 stanzas in total. The 4-stanza poem is written with irregularity, meaning that there are great variations of the lengths of sentences. This is consistent with the theme of the poem which reveals the inharmonic atmosphere caused by the destruction of the trees. When readers reads between the lines, the irregularity of the length generates feeling of discomfort and we can feel the struggle and pain that the writer experience when witnessing the destruction of the trees. We can see that the writer chooses to write long and complicated sentences, this is probably to highlight the everlasting pain and sympathy that she has towards the destruction of the trees. The writer intentionally uses several short sentences in stanza 2 to mark the unforgettable moment when the last great plane-tree was pulled down. "Green and high" "And lonely against the sky" "(Down Now!-)" describes in details the destruction of the last tree which also unmakes the Spring in the writer's life. This is the climax of the whole poem which the writer wants the reader to take notice of in their reading.

From the aspect of language, the writer uses a lot of monosyllabic words, like "crash" "struck" "Whoops" "Whoas" and so on to suggest the direct and sharp damages that the logger caused to the environment and the woman. This shows the deliberate act of destruction by the men to the nature. One of the special features of this poem is the enormous use of continuous tense and present tense, this is to engage readers in the actual moment of destruction of the trees. For example, "cutting" "thinking" "going" ""lying" are used to emphasize the presentness of the actions, to give readers a more authentic experience. It brings the readers to the actual scene where the trees are cut down. Thus readers can substitute themselves into the role of the woman, to feel from her perspectives.

The writer uses a lot of words to describe the destruction but only one is used on the trees. "The grate of the saw", "the swish of the branches" and "The crash of trunks" expresses the action of cutting down the trees. The men are rather actively doing something, while the trees are passively being destroyed. The only adjective used on the trees is "lonely", suggesting the helplessness of the trees. They cannot do anything to stop the destruction. Also, the writer uses an exclamative sentence "(Down Now!)" to show the attitude of the loggers towards the trees and nature. Exclamative sentence is used for command and order, which suggests that the logging workers position themselves in a superior position than the trees and the nature. They think that they can manipulate the nature as they want to. This shows the arrogance and ignorance of human beings towards the nature.

Aural imagery is rich in this poem, the writer uses a lot of sounds to visualize the acts of destruction. These sound effects link up the whole poem and are consistent with the title "The Trees Are Down". For example, "The grate of the saw", "the swish of the branches as the fall" and "the rustle of trodden leaves" in stanza 1 signify the long process of the destruction by the men. "Whoops" and "Whoas" are the sounds of the logging machines operated by the workers to cut down all the trees in the area. These sound effects echo throughout the whole poem and visualize the actual picture of the destruction. These human-generated sounds bring disturbance to the "quiet" nature where the trees stand. This shows the inharmonic atmosphere generated by the mismatch of technology and nature. Human are supposed to live peacefully with the natural world. But here in the poem the logging machines are signs of the break up of the two. The sounds generated by the machines contrast with the quiet and harmonious nature and this shows human's ignorance and arrogance.

There is a use of contrast in the poem. In stanza 2, which is the memory of the woman, she mentioned a dead rat. "I remember thinking: alive or dead, a rat was a god-forsaken thing". She regards the rat as "a god-forsaken thing" yet she thinks " But at least, in May, that even a rat should be alive". She thinks even