WINTER TREES
1.INTRODUCTION
I’m going to analyse the poem “Winter trees”
written by Sylvia Plath. We know that she committed
suicide when she was thirty and so we suppose that this poem was written by
someone young but unhappy at the same time and we think this poem reflects the
negativity and pessimism towards life.
We will see that the poem has a desperate tone which fits to a desperate
woman who was not happy and full of insatisfaction.
2. POEM
WINTER TREES
The wet dawn inks are doing their blue dissolve.
On their blotter of fog the trees
Seem a botanical drawing.
Memories growing, ring on ring,
A series of weddings.
Knowing neither abortions nor bitchery,
Truer than women,
They seed so effortlessly!
Tasting the winds, that are footless,
Waist-deep in history.
Full of wings, otherworldliness.
In this, they are Ledas.
O mother of leaves and sweetness
Who are these pietas?
The shadows of ringdoves chanting, but chasing
nothing.
(c.f.http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/sylviaplath/1460)
3. ANALYSIS OF THE
POEM
TITLE
From my point of view she chose this title because the term “winter” is
related to darkness, pessimism and it could be associated to the way she understood
her life.
THEMES
The main topic is the regret of being a woman. She also seems to compare
herself to trees in the winter.
STRUCTURE
This poem consists of three stanzas. Each of them has five lines. In the
first stanza we can find an introduction where the poet is locating the action
and preparing the reader to listen to what she is going to tell. We can see a
strong visual effect in this stanza. In the second one, she is making a
comparison between the author of the poem (Sylvia) and the trees. The first two
lines of this stanza, seems to be talking of the trees and she is giving this
last ones the capacity of reason. We could say she is personifying the trees.
And, eventually, the last stanza is the most important one because it
concludes the poem. We can also say that it has a strong tone and meaning. The
end is very pessimistic and it summarises all the ideas that she has tried to
explain in the precedent stanzas.
STYLE
COMMUNICATIVE
STRUCTURE
All the poem is written in third
person because she is describing the picture and she is comparing it with her
life. Some examples of third person are “the best dawn inks are doing their
blue dissolve” (line 1) or “memories growing, ring on ring” (line 4).
Dealing with the temporal structure we can find verbs in simple present,
some others in gerund and there is only one verb in past simple and other in
present continuous. With regard to the simple present we can see examples such
as “seem” (line 3) or “are” (lines 9, 11 and 14). We can also find the gerund
in (line 4) “growing”, (line 6) “knowing”, (line 9) “tasting”, (line 15)
“chanting” or (line 15) “chasing”.
And finally, we can observe one verb in past simple which is “seed”
(line 8), and “are doing” (line 1) which is an example of present continuous.
COHESION
We can find some examples of coordination in (line 13) “and” and in
(line 15) “but”. However, we cannot find more examples or coordination or
subordination because the sentences are mostly connected by juxtaposition, like
“full of wings, otherwordliness” (line 11).
We can also say that there are both short and large sentences, but the
phrases which are short, they are also difficult to
understand, because the poem seems to be very abstract.
RETHORICAL DEVICES
We can find alliteration or repetition of sounds /in/ all through the
poem, in words such as “ink” (line 1), “knowing” (line 6), “growing” (line 3),
“tasting” (line 9), “wings” (line 11), “chanting” (line 15) or “chasing” (line
15), “nothing” (line 15), “wind” (line 9) or “doing” (line 1). We can also see
a case of personification of trees in lines 6 and 7 “Knowing neither abortions
nor bitchery, truer than women”. However, we cannot find any repetition of
words or sentences in the poem.
LEXIS AND
SEMANTICS
There are no archaic words because she is a contemporaneous poet but I
think that the words “Ledas” and “pietas” could be
classical words. Moreover, I can find the lexical field of “nature” in words
such as “dawn” (line 1), “fog” (line 2), “trees” (line
2), “botanical” (line 3), “winds” (line 9), “leaves” (line 13) or “ringdoves”
(line 15).
RHYTHM AND RHYME
I have to say that the three stanzas don’t follow the same exact rhyme
model. Having said this I must say that I can find two types of rhyme: on the
one hand we can find rhyme inside the stanzas. We can see it in this examples “growing”
(line 4) with “knowing” (line 6) and “tasting the winds” (line 9) with “full of
wings” (line 11). But there is also irregular rhyme in every single stanza
except the last one where the rhyme is more regular.
I must also say that the fact that there is rhyme inside the lines of
the same stanza and inside the lines of different stanzas produce a sonorous
effect on the reader.
PERSONAL INTERPRETATION
This poem communicates a deep complaint and a strong desire of being
different from what she is. In this sense, the last four lines of the poem,
which include the rhetorical question (“Who are these pietas?”) and the
complaint expression (O mother of leaves and sweetness”), convey the most intense
part of the poem. They coincide with the end, which transmits a sense of
hopelessness.
But, going through each stanza I can say that in the first one she is
locating the action and she is describing the landscape features. On the second
one she is making a comparison between trees and women in general. And the final stanza concludes the poem. The
lyrical intensity grows more and more and reaches the top in these final lines
where the complaint and the rhyme are stronger, that is, meaning and form.
CONCLUSION
I found the poem difficult to grasp because it tries to explain very
personal and complicated thoughts in small number of words, that is why we
cannot compare this poem, for example in classic authors or romantic ones which
are clearer and easier to make them out. We can understand why she wrote this
poem because her intimate life and own personal thoughts are very much
reflected in it. Furthermore, she tries to explain her point of view towards
life by comparing it with the trees.
This poem has a very strong and powerful tone but it is also
pessimistic, so, as I have said before, she must have written it to express her
feelings and to put her thoughts into words.
Eventually, I must say that I have chosen this poem in order to analyze
it because I think it reflects quite well his intimate problems.
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/sylviaplath/1460
Home: <www.americanpoems.com
>17-05-07
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_plath
home: <www.wikipedia.org
> 17-05-07