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 meaningsemerge from the poem if you take its trees to be symbolic of this particular meaning?

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’?

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.) ?

What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?

How does the poet describe the moon: (a) at the beginning of the third stanza, and (b) at its end? What causes this change?

(ii) What does the poet compare their branches to?