Mary Oliver

When I Am Among the Trees

hope lyric poem joyful

When I Am Among the Trees - meaning Summary

Renewal Through the Natural World

The poem presents time among trees as a daily source of spiritual and emotional renewal. Feeling estranged from her better self, the speaker finds in the trees a model of patience, attention, humility, and joy. Their imagined advice reduces life to an attainable purpose: move gently through the world, accept light and goodness, and let that inner brightness be shared with others.

Read Complete Analyses

When I am among the trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily. I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often. Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.” The light flows from their branches. And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, “and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.”

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