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The tone of Kilmer’s deceptively simple poem is at once meditative and reverent. The poem’s meditative quality comes in part from Kilmer’s use of a regular meter, which allows for the language to flow in a way that feels calm and reflective. Kilmer also produces a feeling of meditation through his predominant use of monosyllabic words. To be sure, there are a few two-syllable words scattered throughout the poem, poem being one of them. There’s even one four-syllable word: “intimately” (line 10). However, most words in the poem consist of just one syllable, which evokes a sense of contemplative simplicity. The poem’s meditative quality also helps reflect the speaker’s evident sense of reverence for the wonders of the natural world. The speaker openly expresses their sense of wonder in the first and last stanzas, where they make explicit claims about how trees are lovelier than poems. However, the reverent quality of their tone doesn’t come only from their words. It’s also about form. Consider, for example, how most of the poem consists simply of descriptions of trees. These descriptions come in a cascading compound sentence that stretches across four couplets, the sheer length of which implicitly communicates the speaker’s awestruck reverence.

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