What is going on in this poem?
What's going on is Hass offers forth beautiful descriptions of trees yet decides at the end of the poem that words are not sufficient in describing trees. "There are limits to saying, In language, what the trees did" He uses many different words that personify the trees, dance, threw, capitalized. His line "It is good for poetry to sometimes disenchant us" which is an interesting statement considering poetry is there to enchant and entertain. When reading poetry, especially that of trees it is all about creating the image in your mind which is beyond words when your mind runs rampant, your mind can create a tree that is far more beautiful than any can exist in reality. In this case, words are just a launching point for images that cannot be described. There is no single word for "capitalizing" and "dancing" but every image of a tree shows it capitalizing and dancing.
The Dance with me, dancer. Oh, I will line is a conversation between the poet and the tree that the reader is privy to. Giving the tree a personality creates another layer in the characterization of the Aspen. This quote is a conversation but it is up to the reader to decide who speaks which part. If the Aspen is the one asking to dance then it becomes more of a teacher. But if the author is the one asking to dance than it is as if he is cutting in and the stress is on the dance with me.
Thank you for the intelligent, thoughtful post. HEY, have you thought about the possibility that Hass has such a great understanding of his craft that he can give a beautiful description and then say that words cannot properly describe. Essentially, he is saying however we feel about his work it is not possible for poets to describe everything with words like they think they can. The reason I ask this is because that is basically what your entire first paragraph is about. You might want to take a look at the chance the dancer and the other person are Hass and words. Perhaps you could use a rhetorical question
ReplyDeleteI think that the line "Dance with me, dancer. Oh, I will" could be understood in a myriad of ways, after all Haas did leave this line open ended. The first time I heard the line I thought that it was the tree challenging the poet to describe its actions, which is nearly impossible. In this way of understanding the line it is both focusing on the challenge of using written language and voice of the tree.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the helpful comment. The two dancers in the quote cannot be words and Hass since why would Hass want to dance with words after saying that words have limits earlier in the poem?
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