The Tree
The Tree - meaning Summary
Transformed Into Tree-being
The speaker describes standing still and becoming a tree within a wood, an experience that yields sudden, new understanding. Mythic references (Daphne, laurel) suggest a crossing between human and divine realms. The poem links sympathetic imagination with ritual hospitality toward gods, implying that reverence or inclusion of the divine allows strange transformations and insights. What was once folly becomes clear through this embodied, contemplative vision of nature.
Read Complete AnalysesI stood still and was a tree amid the wood, Knowing the truth of things unseen before; Of Daphne and the laurel bow And that god-feasting couple old that grew elm-oak amid the wold. 'Twas not until the gods had been Kindly entreated, and been brought within Unto the hearth of their heart's home That they might do this wonder thing; Nathless I have been a tree amid the wood And many a new thing understood That was rank folly to my head before.
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