Carl Sandburg

Branches

Branches - meaning Summary

April Night Teaches Song

The poem describes a birch tree's drooping branches after a long night of wind and rain in April. The speaker watches them swing and sway, imagining the wind and rain as partners and the branches as dancers who have practiced through the night. By morning their movement becomes a new, tentative song of the season, a modest celebration of spring's renewal and the gentle choreography of weather and trees.

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The long beautiful night of the wind and rain in April, The long night hanging down from the drooping branches of the top of a birch tree, Swinging, swaying, to the wind for a partner, to the rain for a partner. What is the humming, swishing thing they sing in the morning now? The rain, the wind, the swishing whispers of the long slim curve so little and so dark on the western morning sky ... these dancing girls here on an April early morning ... They have had a long cool beautiful night of it with their partners learning this year's song of April.

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