The Problem of Describing Trees
The argument of this poem is that it is very challenging to describe trees and that words are not the most successful way to describe them. Hass even says "There are limts to saying,/ In language, what the tree did. Although he begins his poem by attempting to describe the trees by saying the "aspen glitters in the wind" and "the leaf flutters, turning" towards the end of the poem he starts to say that the words are unable to do a sufficient job of describing the tree. At the end of the poem he describes the tree very vaguely by saying "the aspen doing something in the wind" to demonstrate how it is difficult to find the right words to accurately describe the trees.
Dance with me, dancer. Oh, I will.
Who is the speaker, and who is he addressing?
The speaker is the poet, and he is addressing the tree that he is trying to describe. I'm not done this...
Thanks for the thoughts! Have you thought about the way Hass describes science in his poem? Perhaps he is not saying that words cannot describe trees, but that nothing can really describe trees. I'm asking because you seem to be focusing on finding the right WORDS to describe trees, but maybe there's the possibility that in fact, trees are impossible to describe in any fashion. Also, I know you're not done, but I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts about the speaker and the "Dance with me, dancer" line! Perhaps you can consider that the dancing shows how you can only experience trees, not replicate or describe them.
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