Poetry: Trees

Given / Context: The poem 'Trees' by Emily Dickinson describes a Summer's day through a series of vivid natural images.

Answer:
The poet employs a rich tapestry of sensory imagery to paint a Summer's day that surpasses any painted representation:

1. Auditory imagery – The trees are compared to 'Psalteries of Summer', suggesting the musical, harp-like rustling of leaves in the summer breeze.
2. Visual and kinetic imagery – The Sun is personified as a majestic figure who 'shouts' and moves with authority, capitalised pronouns ('He', 'His') elevating Him to an almost divine status.
3. Animal imagery – A bird sits 'careless on the fence', another 'gossiped in the Lane', and a snake is 'charmed' on a stone — all lending a lively, animated quality to the scene.
4. Floral imagery – 'Bright Flowers slit a Calyx / And soared upon a Stem / Like Hindered Flags' — the blossoming of flowers is compared to flags being hoisted, with 'Spices in the Hem' adding an olfactory dimension.

Through these layered images — sound, movement, colour, fragrance, and life — the poet creates a multidimensional portrait of Summer that a painter's static canvas (referred to as 'Vandyke's Delineation') cannot fully capture. The final stanza explicitly states that what the poet has witnessed is far more than any visual art can represent.

Given / Context: The phrase 'Psalteries of Summer' appears in the poem as a metaphor for trees.

Concept: A psaltery is an ancient stringed musical instrument, similar to a dulcimer or zither, played by plucking strings stretched over a flat soundboard.

Explanation:
When the poet calls the trees 'Psalteries of Summer', she is drawing a musical metaphor. Just as a psaltery produces sweet, resonant music when its strings are plucked, the trees produce melodious, rustling sounds when the summer breeze passes through their leaves. The leaves of the trees act like the strings of the psaltery — vibrating, trembling, and creating a natural music that is the very soundtrack of summer.

The metaphor also suggests richness and beauty: the psaltery was considered a noble, even sacred instrument in ancient times, so comparing trees to psalteries elevates them to something majestic and spiritually uplifting.

Conclusion: 'Psalteries of Summer' is a beautiful auditory metaphor that portrays trees as nature's own musical instruments, filling the summer air with harmonious sound.

Given / Context: The poem personifies various creatures and natural elements.

Concept: Attributing human qualities to non-human beings is called personification or anthropomorphism.

Lines where creatures are given human qualities:

1. *'A Bird sat careless on the fence'* — The bird is described as 'careless', a human emotional state suggesting ease, leisure, and contentment.
2. *'One gossiped in the Lane'* — Another bird is said to 'gossip', a distinctly human social activity, implying cheerful, idle chatter.
3. *'On silver matters charmed a Snake / Just winding round a Stone'* — The snake is said to be 'charmed' by 'silver matters' (possibly the glint of sunlight or the sound of music), attributing to it a human capacity for being enchanted or fascinated.

How this adds to the beauty of the Summer's day:
By giving creatures human qualities, the poet makes the natural world feel warm, sociable, and joyful. The Summer's day is no longer merely a backdrop but a living, breathing community where birds gossip, snakes are charmed, and all of nature participates in the pleasure of the season. This creates a sense of harmony and intimacy between the human world and the natural world, making the Summer's day feel inviting, vibrant, and full of personality.

Given / Context: The image appears in the lines — *'Bright Flowers slit a Calyx / And soared upon a Stem / Like Hindered Flags – Sweet hoisted – / With Spices – in the Hem –'*

Explanation:
The image of 'Hindered Flags' is a striking and original simile for flowers in bloom. Let us unpack it step by step:

- 'Flags' — Flowers are compared to flags or banners because of their bright colours and the way they unfurl and display themselves proudly on their stems, much as flags are raised on poles.
- 'Hindered' — The flags are described as 'hindered', meaning held back or restrained. This captures the moment just before full bloom — when the petals are still partially enclosed within the calyx, straining to open, like a flag that is being slowly, ceremonially hoisted rather than snapping open all at once.
- 'Sweet hoisted' — The word 'hoisted' reinforces the flag metaphor: the flower is being raised up the 'pole' of its stem, unfurling gradually and sweetly.
- 'With Spices in the Hem' — Just as the hem of a garment might be embroidered or scented, the edges of the petals carry fragrance ('spices'), adding an olfactory richness to the visual image.

Conclusion: The image beautifully captures the slow, triumphant unfolding of a flower in bloom — colourful, fragrant, and full of restrained energy — comparing it to a ceremonial flag being raised with dignity and sweetness.

Given / Context: Throughout the poem, the pronouns referring to the Sun — 'He', 'His', etc. — are written with capital letters.

Explanation:
There are two complementary reasons for this capitalisation:

1. Personification and Divinity: By capitalising the pronouns, the poet elevates the Sun to the status of a divine or supremely powerful being. In English, capitalised pronouns ('He', 'His', 'Him') are traditionally used to refer to God. By applying this convention to the Sun, Dickinson suggests that the Sun is the presiding deity of Summer — the source of all light, warmth, life, and beauty that the poem celebrates. The Sun is not merely a celestial body but a sovereign, almost godlike presence.

2. Emily Dickinson's poetic style: Dickinson frequently capitalises nouns and pronouns throughout her poetry to give them special emphasis and significance. Capitalisation in her work often signals that a word carries deeper, more abstract meaning beyond its literal sense.

Conclusion: The capitalisation of the Sun's pronouns is a deliberate poetic choice that personifies the Sun as a majestic, divine ruler of the Summer's day, reinforcing the poem's theme that nature in summer is a grand, almost sacred spectacle.

Given / Context: The poem 'Trees' by Emily Dickinson is a celebration of a Summer's day, built entirely from precise, closely observed details of nature.

Answer:
The poem is a testament to the idea that great poetry springs from attentive, minute observation of the natural world. The following examples illustrate this:

1. 'Bright Flowers slit a Calyx' — The word 'slit' is remarkably precise. It captures the exact physical action of petals forcing their way through the tight enclosure of the calyx as a flower opens. Only a poet who has closely watched a flower bloom could choose such an accurate verb.

2. 'A Bird sat careless on the fence' — The observation of a bird's relaxed, unhurried posture on a fence is a detail drawn from life. The word 'careless' perfectly captures the nonchalant ease of a bird on a summer day.

3. 'One gossiped in the Lane' — The chattering, repetitive calls of birds in a lane is a sound familiar to any careful listener. The poet translates this observed sound into the human activity of 'gossiping', showing how close observation leads to imaginative metaphor.

4. 'On silver matters charmed a Snake / Just winding round a Stone' — The image of a snake coiled around a sun-warmed stone is a precise naturalistic observation. The 'silver matters' may refer to the glint of sunlight on the snake's scales or on the stone — a detail only a keen observer would notice.

5. 'Soared upon a Stem / Like Hindered Flags' — The gradual upward unfurling of a flower on its stem, compared to a flag being hoisted, shows that the poet has watched the slow process of a flower opening and found in it a perfect visual analogy.

Conclusion: Each image in the poem is rooted in direct, careful observation of nature. Dickinson transforms these observed details into metaphors and symbols, demonstrating that the raw material of great poetry is the world seen with extraordinary attention and precision.

Activity-based question — Reference and Dictionary Work

Given: Both the dulcimer and the psaltery are ancient stringed instruments. Students are asked to compare them using an illustrated dictionary.

Findings:

| Feature | Psaltery | Dulcimer |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | Typically triangular, trapezoidal, or wing-shaped flat soundboard | Trapezoidal flat soundboard (similar shape) |
| How played | Strings are plucked with fingers or a plectrum | Strings are struck with small hammers called 'hammers' or 'beaters' |
| Sound | Delicate, harp-like, gentle tone | Brighter, more percussive, resonant tone |
| Origin | Ancient Middle East; used in biblical times | Medieval Europe and Asia; also found in folk traditions |
| Strings | Stretched over a resonating box; no frets | Stretched over a resonating box; no frets |
| Modern descendant | Related to the harp and zither | The hammered dulcimer is an ancestor of the piano |

Key Difference: The most important distinction is in the method of playing — the psaltery is plucked (like a harp or guitar), while the dulcimer is struck with hammers (making it closer in principle to a piano). This gives each instrument a distinctly different quality of sound despite their similar appearance.

In the poem: The poet uses 'Psalteries of Summer' to suggest the soft, plucked, melodious rustling of tree leaves — a sound more gentle and harp-like than the struck tones of a dulcimer, making the psaltery the more fitting metaphor for the whispering of trees in a summer breeze.