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“A tree”

The phrase “a tree” appears several times throughout this short poem. This repetition is particularly striking, considering that it opens three consecutive stanzas. The repetition of “a tree” at the beginning of stanzas 2–4 has an important grammatical function. Specifically, it continues the thought announced in the opening couplet, allowing the speaker to elaborate on and qualify their claim that no poem could be as lovely as a tree. This grammatical function can be made clearer if we outline the structure in prose form:

     I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree—[that is,] a tree whose . . . ; a tree that . . . a tree that . . . 

This edited version clearly shows how the repetition of “a tree” serves to extend the opening sentence by explaining the different aspects of a tree that make it so much lovelier than a poem. In addition to this important grammatical function, the repetition of the phrase “a tree” at the beginning of these three stanzas also has a devotional effect. The speaker is clearly in awe of trees, and their compulsion to repeat the word “tree” reflects that awe and endows these stanzas with a subtle, prayer-like quality.

Female Body Parts

Throughout the poem’s four middle stanzas, the speaker personifies trees in terms that clearly gender them female. As a part of this strategy of personification, the speaker makes several references to parts of the female body. They start by likening a tree to a “hungry” infant that suckles on “the earth’s sweet flowing breast” (lines 3–4). Here, the “breast” mentioned feminizes the earth rather than the tree. In the next stanza, however, the gendered language applies directly to the tree. There, the speaker describes a tree as though it were a pious woman who “lifts her leafy arms to pray” (line 6). Next, the speaker imagines a tree “in Summer wear” with “a nest of robins in her hair” (lines 7–8). Finally, in the fifth stanza the speaker describes a tree in winter, with her “bosom” (line 9) laden with snow. These references to female body parts reflect the longstanding Western tradition of gendering the natural world feminine. Yet Kilmer also subtly flips the script on this tradition, which often frames feminized nature as inferior to God’s supposedly best creation: “man.” By contrast, Kilmer’s poem elevates trees to the same level as the rest of Creation.

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