The Full Text of “The Black Walnut Tree”
The Full Text of “The Black Walnut Tree”
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“The Black Walnut Tree” Introduction
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"The Black Walnut Tree" was written by the American poet Mary Oliver and first published in her 1979 collection, Twelve Moons. In the poem, which is usually read as being autobiographical, the speaker and her mother must decide whether to sell their walnut tree in order to help pay off their mortgage. The decision seems easy at first: the tree causes no end of problems, its roots clogging up drains and its heavy limbs threatening to damage the women's house during storms. Yet the tree also stands as a testament to the speaker's ancestors, who emigrated to the United States and became farmers in Ohio. The speaker and her mother instinctively understand that selling the tree would dishonor the preceding generations of their family who turned to the land as they built a life in their new country. While the issue remains unresolved at the poem's end, it's clear that the speaker believes that some things—inlcuding family and heritage—are more important than money.
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“The Black Walnut Tree” Summary
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My mother and I go back and forth: should we sell our black walnut tree to the lumberman in order to finish paying off our house? After all, there's a good chance that one day the tree will be brought down by a storm anyway, and that its huge branches will cause damage to the house. We consider the question thoughtfully, two women trying to be methodical and practical despite the financial pressure we're under. I mention that the tree's roots have made their way into the drains in the basement, and she brings up the fact that it's getting harder every year to clean up the piles of leaves and fruit that it drops on the ground. And yet, something moves deep inside us that's more valuable than money; we feel this as acutely as the edge of a small shovel that wants us to farm the land. As such, we continue to debate what we should do about the tree, but we don't actually take any action. That night I have a dream about my ancestors who emigrated from central Europe; they worked the vibrant and bountiful lands of Ohio, filling the fields with trees and other crops. My mother and I are certain that, if we were to cut down the walnut tree, we'd be utterly filled with shame to have created a hole in our own—and our ancestors'—backyard. So the branches of the black walnut tree sway back and forth in the wind for another year, which is filled with more sunshine, storms, leaves, and fruit that bounces off the ground. And the mortgage payments snap at us like a whip every month.
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“The Black Walnut Tree” Themes
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Family and Heritage
The poem describes a mother and daughter facing a difficult choice between selling their black walnut tree and using the money to pay off their mortgage, or letting the tree continue to grow. What develops through this debate is an appreciation of the value of family; the mother and daughter realize that to remove the tree would be to dishonor the hard work of their immigrant ancestors, who found success as farmers in the U.S. The tree, then, is deeply tied to the family’s heritage, something the poem implies deserves to be honored. Cutting down the tree would be to cut down the speaker's connection to the past, shamefully erasing the sacrifices earlier generations made for the speaker and her mother to live as they do in the present.
The poem implies that the speaker and her mother are struggling to meet their mortgage payments. They consider selling the tree because its wood is valuable and would thus ease their financial burdens. Yet, as the poem unfolds, it becomes clear that this tree is deeply connected to the speaker's heritage. The speaker’s ancestors emigrated from Bohemia (central Europe) and had to work hard to establish a life in their new country. These generations had to be hardy and determined—qualities that the speaker now sees reflected in the tree itself.
They also notably found success as farmers, thereby establishing a close bond with the land. They even planted orchards—a fact that suggests the black walnut tree in question was originally planted by an earlier member of the speaker's family.
To remove the tree, then, would be to erase the history that the tree represents. Its absence would be an “emptiness” in which the speaker and mother would “crawl” with “shame.” The mention of “emptiness” implies that the tree and the heritage it represents are an indelible part of the mother and daughter in the present. Thus, though their money woes are very real, “something brighter than money moves / in [their] blood.” This bright “something” is their family lineage—the bond that ties the mother and daughter with those who came before them, and which the poem implies is far more valuable than any money the tree might bring in.
All that said, the poem is not overly sentimental. Neither the mother nor the daughter pretends that it wouldn’t be, in truth, great to sell the tree. Not only would it raise money, but the tree also poses a danger to the existence of the house; a storm could bring crashing through the roof, and its roots threaten to block the drains.
But here, again, the tree takes on symbolism that extends into the past. Those earlier generations also had to face difficulties and dangers, but they stuck to their agricultural tasks and built lives of which both mother and daughter are a product—or, more accurately, a growth. So just because the walnut tree is a kind of problem, what it represents outweighs the obvious solution to this problem (getting rid of it).
In the end, neither the problem of the black walnut tree nor the mortgage find resolution. The tree “swings through another year,” and the mortgage rears its ugly head every month. But in not cutting down the tree, the mother and daughter gain a quiet but determined perseverance—and an enduring respect for those who came before them. The poem, then, gently argues that family and heritage are simply more important than money.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-35
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Nature and Humanity
"The Black Walnut Tree" reflects a deep connection between humanity and the natural world. It implies that the link between people and the natural environment in which they live is something strong and vital. That isn't to say that this relationship is without its difficulties, and the poem neither romanticizes nature nor denies its fundamental importance in human life. Instead, it presents nature as a powerful, nourishing force that people can turn to in times of need but never control.
In the first half of the poem, the speaker and her mother make a convincing case for why they should get rid of the black walnut tree in the backyard. Selling the wood would bring in a decent amount of money, helping with the women's mortgage. Though the poem here presents the tree as a problem to be solved, it also hints at the way the natural world provides vital resources for humanity (in this case wood for furniture).
At the same time, the tree is a burden. Its roots cause drainage problems, the tree's leaves and fruit are difficult to clear away, and, most importantly, its heavy limbs might thwack into the house during a storm. Through discussing these factors, the speaker reminds the reader that nature can be fearsome. For all nature's bounty and beauty, it can also destroy things in an instant.
The latter half of the poem looks at the more positive side of humanity's relationship with nature. The speaker and her mother feel a deep connection with earlier generations of their family, who emigrated from central Europe and established themselves as farmers in the U.S. The speaker calls the land her forefathers found "fresh and generous," directly connecting the natural world to vibrancy, opportunity, and abundance. Nature is thus a nourishing and creative force.
The poem also acknowledges that way that plants and trees take root is similar to the way families develop over time. Earlier generations found their footing in a new country by working the land—planting "orchards," and perhaps even the walnut tree itself. As these trees grew, so too did the speaker's family.
This furthers the speaker's awareness of the connection between humanity and nature, which translates into a suspicion that cutting down the tree would dishonor both the speaker's heritage and the natural world itself. The tree grew out of the land that offered itself to the speaker's ancestors, and thus to chop it down would be to disrespect not only the hard work of earlier generations—who toiled to fill fields with "leaves and vines and orchards"—but also the generosity of the natural world.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 2-8
- Lines 11-19
- Lines 21-29
- Lines 30-33
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Black Walnut Tree”
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Lines 1-5
My mother and ...
... off the mortgage.The speaker and her mother are at a crossroads with a big decision to make: a black walnut tree looms over their house, and the two women must decide whether to sell it to the lumberman.
Selling the tree is an attractive option because the mother and daughter are facing money woes with their mortgage (the payments they must make on their house) and walnut is valuable wood. The poem presents selling the tree as the sensible, practical—if a little boring—option. The end-stop at the end of the first line ("My Mother and I debate:") heralds the opening of the discussion, making it clear that what will follow is a kind of weighing-up of two choices.
The opening five lines ("My mother [...] mortgage") also establish up the poem's tone and form. The use of present tense and enjambment adds a sense of urgency, bringing the reader into the "debate" as if in real time. The end-stop after "mortgage" in line 5, meanwhile, gives the word an intentionally heavy emphasis, suggesting that the mortgage payments are a kind of constant weight in the women's lives.
Though the poem has no clear rhyme scheme or meter, the use of consonance adds musicality and lyricism to its words. Take the repetition of /l/, /b/, and /m/ sounds:
My mother and I debate:
we could sell
the black walnut tree
to the lumberman,
and pay off the mortgage.The thick consonance feels almost as though the speaker is chewing through the words here, carefully considering the option at hand.
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Lines 6-10
Likely some storm ...
... to be wise. -
Lines 11-15
Roots in the ...
... to gather away. -
Lines 16-21
But something brighter ...
... anything. -
Lines 21-25
That night I ...
... vines and orchards. -
Lines 26-29
What my mother ...
... our fathers' backyard. -
Lines 30-35
So the black ...
... of the mortgage.
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“The Black Walnut Tree” Symbols
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The Black Walnut Tree
The black walnut tree symbolizes the link between the past and present. The poem implies that it was planted by the speaker’s ancestors, who were no strangers to cultivating “leaves and vines and orchards” (all related to trees), and accordingly stands as a testament to their hard work.
The tree’s roots thus come to represent the familial roots laid down all those years ago, when those preceding generations travelled across the Atlantic to settle in the U.S. The fact that the tree’s roots have grown into cellar drains demonstrates both the practical problems the tree has created and the way in which it is a fundamental part of the house’s story—the family’s story.
It’s the latter of these that wins out in the end, with the speaker and her mother deciding that the symbolic value of the tree—the story that it tells, and the link it provides with past—outweighs the temptation to cash in and sell.
The tree is symbolic in other, related ways as well. Its hardiness and strength reflect the hard work of the speaker's ancestors, meaning that to cut down the tree would be dishonor that work and sacrifice. Finally, the tree also speaks to nature's fearsome power, and it's ability to at once nourish and destroy human lives.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 2-8
- Line 11
- Lines 12-15
- Lines 26-35
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Farming
While the tree itself symbolizes the link between the speaker and her ancestors, the poem also speaks more widely about the relationship between human beings and the natural world. In particular, the poem explores how people and place are intimately linked through agriculture. Farming or working the land in the poem represents the deep bond between human beings and nature, and how this connection can be a source of resiliency.
The speaker's ancestors planted "leaves and vines and orchards" to help them survive in their new land, and in doing so laid the groundwork for future generations to blossom. For the speaker's family, cultivating the land was one and the same as cultivating life.
That's why the speaker selects a "trowel" as the object to best represent the instinctive emotion she and her mother share. Both women want to honor their ancestors—not to do so would cause them "shame"—and this feeling moves in them with the "sharp[ness] and quick[ness]" of a trowel (a small spade). In other words, the feeling is urgent and purposeful—just as the agricultural labor of their ancestors had to be.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 17-19: “an edge / sharp and quick as a trowel / that wants us to dig and sow.”
- Lines 21-25: “That night I dream / of my fathers out of Bohemia / filling the blue fields / of fresh and generous Ohio / with leaves and vines and orchards.”
- Line 29: “our own and our fathers' backyard.”
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“The Black Walnut Tree” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Alliteration is an important part of "The Black Walnut Tree," lending intensity to the speaker's words. As an example, take the alliteration in lines 6-7:
Likely some storm anyway
will churn down its dark boughs,This quote comes as the speaker and her mother build a case for why they should sell the walnut tree. Not only would it pay off their mortgage, but it would also eliminate the risk that the tree poses to the house: a storm could easily send its limbs crashing through the house. Anticipating the violence of this yet-to-arrive disaster, alliterating (and sibilant) /s/ sounds convey the wind and the rain, while the two hard /d/s have a heavy quality suggestive of the weight and might of the tree.
Soon after this moment, the speaker notes how she and her mother:
[...] talk
slowly, two women trying
in a difficult time to be wise.The chattering /t/ sound reflects all this talk. The /t/ sound is also found in the word "tree" itself, of course, perhaps works as a kind of subconscious echo, nagging at the reader.
Another important moment of alliteration appears in lines 16 and 17 as poem makes the turn from the argument in favor of cutting down the walnut tree to the more convincing one against doing so:
But something brighter than money
moves in our blood [...]This alliteration sounds bright and loud, evoking the way that, despite the practical reasons for cutting down the tree, something deeper calls the two women in the opposite direction. The strong /b/ sounds here literally surround the /m/ alliteration of "money" and "moves," subtly reflecting how this "something" (a reference to respect for the past and the speaker's heritage) is more powerful than financial concerns.
Later, strong alliteration again appears when the speaker recounts a dream she has about preceding generations working the fields of Ohio: "fathers," "filling," fields," and "fresh" all share the initial /f/ sound, creating a sense of natural abundance and beauty that reflects the "generous" land; it sounds as if the lines themselves are overgrown with beautiful sounds.
Finally, the poem returns to the sibilant /s/ sound in its final few lines:
So the black walnut tree
swings through another year
of sun [...]This reminds the reader that the storm mentioned in line 6 remains a threat, even though the two women have decided to keep the tree. Then, to make clear that the financial danger hasn't gone away either, as "month" and "mortgage" alliterate heavily in the last two lines.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “My mother”
- Line 6: “some storm”
- Line 7: “down,” “dark”
- Line 8: “talk”
- Line 9: “two,” “trying”
- Line 10: “time to”
- Line 13: “getting”
- Line 15: “gather”
- Line 16: “But,” “brighter,” “money”
- Line 17: “moves,” “blood”
- Line 19: “sow”
- Line 20: “So,” “don't do”
- Line 22: “fathers”
- Line 23: “filling,” “fields”
- Line 24: “fresh”
- Line 26: “my mother”
- Line 30: “So”
- Line 31: “swings”
- Line 32: “sun,” “leaping”
- Line 33: “leaves”
- Line 34: “month,” “month”
- Line 35: “mortgage”
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Assonance
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Caesura
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Consonance
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End-Stopped Line
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Enjambment
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Metaphor
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Repetition
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Simile
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"The Black Walnut Tree" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Black walnut tree
- Lumberman
- Churn
- Trowel
- Sow
- Bohemia
- Bounding
- Whip-crack
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(Location in poem: Line 3: “black walnut tree”; Line 30: “black walnut tree”)
The black walnut tree, a.k.a jugulans nigra, is a type of tree native to North America whose wood is often used for building furniture.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Black Walnut Tree”
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Form
"The Black Walnut Tree" is a free verse poem that doesn't adhere to a conventional poetic form. The most striking thing about the form is the way it unfolds visually on the page: it consists of 35 short lines, with no stanza breaks at all. Accordingly, the poem bears a clear resemblance to the sturdy trunk of a tree.
Though the poem doesn't have stanzas, it does have two distinct sections. As the first line of the poem makes clear, there is a kind of debate going on. The speaker and her mother are deciding whether to sell the walnut tree. Lines 1 to 15 ("My mother and I [...] to gather away") essentially lay out the arguments for selling the tree, while lines 16 to 35 ("But something brighter [...] crack of the mortgage") lay out the arguments against doing so.
By the end of the poem, it's the argument against selling the tree that wins out, because it appeals to something more profound than the practical and sensible reasons to sell. Ultimately, not much changes in the poem in terms of the speaker's material circumstances. But through this debate, she and her mother come to appreciate the value of family connection, and how the tree represents a link between the past and the present.
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Meter
"The Black Walnut Tree" is a poem written in free verse, meaning it does not follow a regular meter. Oliver keeps her lines short and fragmented, relying on enjambment to construct longer phrases and sentences. In part, these short lines help show the way that the speaker and her mother are struggling to come to a decision about whether to sell the black walnut tree. It's almost as if they are making a list of pros and cons, flipping between wanting to sell and wanting to preserve the tree. The visual layout is also long and relatively thin. This cleverly makes the poem resemble a tree trunk, with the lack of stanza breaks also contributing to this effect.
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Rhyme Scheme
"The Black Walnut Tree" is a free verse poem and doesn't have a rhyme scheme. At times it reads almost like prose as the speaker and her mother "debate" about whether to sell the tree. A neat rhyme scheme would probably feel too ordered and artificial for a poem that relies on a casual, conversational tone to make its point.
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“The Black Walnut Tree” Speaker
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The speaker is a woman (made clear in line 9's reference to herself and her mother as "two women") who lives with her mother in Ohio. The speaker's ancestors emigrated to the United States from central Europe ("Bohemia") and worked the land as farmers, growing "orchards" (of which the black walnut tree was perhaps once a part). It's also clear that the speaker is currently facing financial difficulties, with the pressure of paying off her house making her wonder whether it's worth selling the black walnut tree and using the proceeds to pay off her mortgage.
Clearly, the speaker and her mother are close—and, together, they feel a sense of loyalty to the generations who came before them. These ancestors had to work hard to build a life in their new country, and the speaker feels like this is something that must be honored—even if it means ongoing financial difficulty. The speaker doesn't romanticize this decision, making it clear at the end of the poem that its consequences mean the ongoing monthly "whip-crack of the mortgage."
The poem is usually read as being autobiographical, with its context taken from the poet Mary Oliver's own life.
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“The Black Walnut Tree” Setting
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"The Black Walnut Tree" takes place in contemporary Ohio. It is written entirely in the present-tense, and is centered around the home in which the speaker and her mother live. Their backyard is dominated by a black walnut tree; the tree stands tall and sturdy, suggesting both the beauty and fearsome power of nature. Like the mortgage, the tree poses a threat to the house: its "dark boughs" could crash into it during a storm.
The poem's setting also widens to consider the past, as the speaker dreams about her ancestors emigrating to the United States as farmers. The speaker envisions the "fields" her ancestors work as being "fresh and generous," suggesting a respect for an appreciation of nature.
By the end of the poem, nothing about the setting itself has changed; the speaker points out that the tree still stands, threatening to crash into the house and creating lots of work for the speaker and her mother, while the mortgage continues to hang over their heads.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Black Walnut Tree”
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Literary Context
Mary Oliver, who died in 2019, was one of America's most popular (and best-selling) contemporary poets, and the author of over 30 collections. This poem was first published in her fourth full collection, Twelve Moons (1979), which was followed by her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection American Primitive. This poem is typical in its free verse approach not just of Oliver's own work, but of the overall trend in the 1970s in America poetry.
Oliver's poetry often explores the relationship between humankind and nature, both on the personal and communal level. Oliver herself grew up in Ohio and subsequently lived in New England, and both areas feature heavily in her work.
In this way, Oliver's poetry has much in common with the 18th-century Romanticism—which included writers like William Wordsworth, John Keats, and William Blake. However, while Romantic poets sometimes idealized and romanticized nature, Oliver's work tends to be more down-to-earth. Indeed, in this poem there is a clear desire not to sentimentalize the natural world (combined with a deep respect for nature).
Some of the themes in Oliver's work can also be traced to American poets like Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau. For Whitman, nature and the individual were deeply connected, with grass often representing personal and spiritual growth (see "Song of Myself no. 6"). Thoreau felt that humanity had a responsibility to the natural world, and is considered by many as a forefather of the green movement. An attitude that seems to combine Whitman's awe and Thoreau's respect shows up throughout much of Oliver's poetry.
Trees specifically feature in numerous poems as well. Readers may wish to compare "The Black Walnut Tree" with "Birches" by Oliver's fellow American poet Robert Frost. As in this poem, the trees in "Birches" represent a living link between the present and the past.
Historical Context
"The Black Walnut Tree" doesn't deal much in historical specifics, though references to lumbermen, mortgages, drains, and preceding generations of family make situate it in the contemporary era. The poem is generally considered autobiographical, at least in part. Mary Oliver grew up in Ohio, and its nature features prominently in her poetry (in 1972 she released The River Styx, Ohio, and Other Poems).
The star of the poem—the tree itself—is a valuable (living) object. Walnut wood is of a desirable density, color, and durability for furniture, which is why selling such a large tree could make a big difference to the family's finances. Ultimately, though, the tree itself is a kind of history, its roots linking the past with seasonal fruit of the present.
In deciding to keep the tree in the backyard, the two women think about preceding generations of their family and the speaker dreams of her "fathers out of Bohemia." This is an area in central Europe that falls within what is now known as the Czech Republic. Many Czech Americans are descended from immigrants who came to the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries, though some generations arrived even earlier. There are nearly one-and-a-half million Americans of at least partial Czech descent. Of the states, Ohio has the seventh largest Czech American population.
Twelve Moons, the collection in which this poem was first published, came out in 1979. The late '70s in America were a time of considerable social upheaval. It was also a time of considerable international tension, including the Iran hostage crisis and the ongoing complexities of the Cold War. In general, however, Oliver's poetry notably shuts out the specifics of the contemporary world—the mortgage being the exception here—and prefers to focus on the more enduring qualities of nature.
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More “The Black Walnut Tree” Resources
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External Resources
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The Tree Itself — Learn more about black walnut trees.
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The Poem Out Loud — A reading and interesting analysis of the poem by The Daily Poem.
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More Poems and Biography — A valuable resource on Mary Oliver from the Poetry Foundation.
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On Being Mary Oliver — A rare and insightful interview with the poet.
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Trees in Poetry — A great compilation of poems with trees as their main subject.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Mary Oliver
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