"The Trees are Down" contains three examples of anaphora, a form of repetition that generally adds structure to the poem and controls its pace. This device first appears in the poem's second sentence, which begins with a great deal of parallelism—"the grate of the ... the swish of the ... the crash of the ... the rustle of ..." Anaphora perpetuates the echoing effect, with "the loud common" appearing twice in close succession. The repetition of this phrase calls attention to its presence, making it "louder" or more prominent. Plus, the phrase becomes more "common" in that it appears more frequently, the anaphora reflecting the text's meaning.
Furthermore, this initial stanza's various forms of repetition, in conjunction with devices such as onomatopoeia, establish an important trend that will persist throughout the poem: sound is used as an essential tool for adding depth to the setting and creating moody atmospheres in which to frame the poem's events.
Anaphora appears again in lines 5-7, where "I remember" introduces a scene from the speaker's past in which the speaker stumbles upon a "large dead rat." Here, repetition distinguishes the episode from the present action that surrounds it by placing its events firmly in the past. The reader later learns that the speaker would have forgotten this incident were it not for the trees, so the increased emphasis on the speaker's remembrance becomes a testament to the great impact that the trees have on the speaker. In combination with the seven "-ing" endings scattered throughout these lines, anaphora also perpetuates the poem's repetitive but dynamic cadence.
Lines 22-24 describe the various environments through which the speaker and the trees have lived side-by-side, their hearts "beating" together. Each month and weather condition is introduced by "in the," which helps to build speed and momentum as the short clauses roll into one another, aided by asyndeton. The repeating phrase gives the impression that the seasons have been cycled through over and over again, giving longevity and credibility to the speaker's relationship with the trees. As a result of the strong bond that the anaphora implies, the intensity of the speaker's suffering becomes more evident.