Trees
Crooked, black treeon your little grey-black hillock,ridiculously raised one step towardthe infinite summits of the night:even you the few grey starsdraw upward into a vague melodyof harsh threads.
Bent as you are from strainingagainst the bitter horizontals ofa north wind,--there below youhow easily the long yellow notesof poplars flow upward in a descendingscale, each note secure in its ownposture--singularly woven.
All voices are blent willinglyagainst the heaving contra-bassof the dark but you alonewarp yourself passionately to one sidein your eagerness.
Words in this poem
- blent p. p.
- Blinded. Also (Chaucer), 3d sing. pres. Blindeth.
- willingly adv.
- In a willing manner; with free will; without reluctance; cheerfully.
- passionately adv.
- In a passionate manner; with strong feeling; ardently.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Trees is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Book of Poems, Al Que Quiere!, Project Gutenberg ebook #51997; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Carlos Williams, Trees, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/trees.html, id L01129.
Form and metre
Trees is 19 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 74% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 -----AA straining · of · you · notes · descending · ownA · wovenA
- 3 -A--A willingly · bassA · alone · side · eagernessA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Crooked, black tree | 4 | /˘·· |
| on your little grey-black hillock, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| ridiculously raised one step toward | 10 | ˘/˘˘˘····· |
| the infinite summits of the night: | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| even you the few grey stars | 7 | /˘····· |
| draw upward into a vague melody | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| of harsh threads. | 3 | ··· |
| Bent as you are from straining | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| against the bitter horizontals of | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| a north wind,--there below you | 7 | ······· |
| how easily the long yellow notes | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| of poplars flow upward in a descending | 11 | ·/˘·/˘··˘/˘ |
| scale, each note secure in its own | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| posture--singularly woven. | 8 | /˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| All voices are blent willingly | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| against the heaving contra-bass | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| of the dark but you alone | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| warp yourself passionately to one side | 10 | ·˘//˘˘˘··· |
| in your eagerness. | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.