Some Trees Introduction

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Isn't it great when poets refuse to keep things nice and simple? Now, before you start to huff and
puff and switch on that Xbox, consider the following: yes, John Ashbery is a quirky-sounding
dude who writes equally quirky (yet sophisticated) poetry that often makes no sense. But in
making no sense, he also offers the chance to create your own answers to the questions his work
pose. Essentially, you're free to think what you want—so long as you can back up those brilliant
ideas, that is.

And believe us, the world of Ashbery is wide open for interpretation, so don't be afraid to think
outside of the box. In fact, we say go ahead and jump right over the edge of that box and take a
peek at what may be on the other side. And what you might find is something that looks and
sounds like one of those wild paintings at a modern art museum. You know, the ones with the
funny shapes that look like fingers but you can't be too sure because the thing that's above the
fingers looks like a banana swimming in bunch of pea soup? We're talking Picasso, in other
words, or Willem de Kooning, or any other modern abstract expressionist that people claim to
know all about, but who can never tell you if it's a finger or hot dog in that painting.

Ashbery is just like those guys, only he's a poet. He's often considered a "painterly poet" because
his language plays tricks on you and makes you question everything. His poem "Some Trees,"
first published in 1956, looks simple enough at first glance. You're thinking, okay, it's a poem
about a bunch of trees—cool. Not so fast there, Shmoopers.

When you actually read the poem, you may find that Ashbery is speaking English but the words
sound like Greek to you when you put them together. That's okay! In fact, if you ever find
yourself reading any of his poems and later feel as if you've got that meaning down pat, you're
probably in trouble.
However, a poem has to be about something, even if it's a poem about poems, which modern
poets loved to write. "Some Trees," on the one hand, is about trees. Sure Ashbery uses them as a
metaphor for relationships, but there's more to it than that. It's also about experience and how we
experience… experience. (Yes, there are supposed to be three "experiences" in that last
sentence.)

So open that mind, keep it open, and don't get too frustrated if you're left empty-handed by the
end of the poem. After all, no one has any answers to those tough life stuff questions, right? But
we do have ideas and ideas are great, even if they look like bananas that just took a dip in pea
soup.
What is Some Trees About and Why Should I Care?

Did you ever paint, write, or say something that you thought was brilliant but the person you
shared it with looked at you like you were crazy? We've all been there. Sometimes people just
don't get us, even when we think we're speaking plain as day.

Well, today no one will look at you like you're crazy. In fact, we're all going to encourage you to
think as freely and strangely as you want. Now, that's not to say we want you to shout about
leprechauns riding unicorns on the fourth of July, but we want you to use that imagination and
ask lots of questions.

The reason is because John Ashbery's poems demand that you ask questions and hold off on
demanding answers. He thought that most poets who claim to have answers often have no idea
what they're talking about. So, at the very least you can use "Some Trees" as backup to your
argument that maybe teacher doesn't know everything, especially if the poet himself is telling
you that he doesn't know everything.

And it's nice to have a poet who's not cramming answers into our heads. Sure, it may get a little
frustrating at times, but Ashbery is trying to tell us to trust our own understanding of any
experience we may have. After all, people can't experience things for you, so why would we ask
someone to experience something for us and tell us how we should interpret it? We'd rather do it
ourselves and make our own answers. Wouldn't you?
And at the very, very least, maybe all this imagination exercise will help
us to better understand Lady Gaga's next outfit. Hey, we gotta have
goals.

These are amazing: each

Joining a neighbor, as though speech
Were a still performance.
Arranging by chance

To meet as far this morning

From the world as agreeing
With it, you and I
Are suddenly what the trees try

To tell us we are:
That their merely being there
Means something; that soon
We may touch, love, explain.

And glad not to have invented

Such comeliness, we are surrounded:
A silence already filled with noises,
A canvas on which emerges

A chorus of smiles, a winter morning.

Placed in a puzzling light, and moving,
Our days put on such reticence
These accents seem their own defense.

Lines 1-3
These are amazing: each
Joining a neighbor, as though speech
Were a still performance.
 Okay, we need to start with the title: "Some Trees." Imagine if we didn't have a
title? What would we make of "these?"

 Luckily, we can guess that "these" are presumably the trees the speaker's
admiring. They're amazing for lots of different reasons, but it looks like the
speaker is just trying to appreciate them for what they are and how they look
together. But why not remind the reader that "these" is referring to trees? What's
Ashbery trying to do (or not do) here and why? We'll have to keep reading to find
out.

 Notice too the rhyming couplet of lines 1-2: "each" and "speech." In fact, the
entire poem is written with various kinds of rhyming couplets. So we're beginning
to notice a definite rhythm here that makes the whole thing sound fluid and
orderly. (Check out "Form and Meter" for more on that kind of stuff.)

 We also get some enjambment too that joins line 1 to line 2. So "each" tree may
be special and "amazing," but it's also part of a community: "joining a neighbor."
But how does a tree join a neighbor?

 Well, maybe it has no choice. It is a tree after all and it doesn't get to decide who
its neighbor will be. That's up to nature and the guy (or gal) down the block who
decides to plant a tree.

 Let's think of it this way too: from a distance a bunch of trees may look like one
giant blob of foliage. So even though there are individual trees, they're still part of
a big ecosystem. So they're "joined" together whether they like it or not.

 What about the tone of "joining a neighbor?" There's something friendly about it,
hospitable, maybe peaceful.

 There's some personification here too, since trees don't usually regard one
another as neighbors. In fact, they don't regard anything since, you know, they're
trees.

 So immediately we begin to suspect that Ashbery is using these trees as

a metaphor of some sort. The speaker's not just digging nature and chilling in
the park. These trees are meant to tell us something.
  Just what that something is remains to be seen. Although, we're starting to notice
a separation of one from many that seems to be getting at how an individual
relates to the bigger world around it. First we get the word "these" and then we
get a more individualized word, "each."

 There's some figurative language too in lines 2-3: "as though speech / Were a
still performance." Here we're starting to see a connection between those
amazing trees joining their neighbors and the idea of human relationships and
people "joining" one another. More specifically, these lines are an example of
a simile, which makes that connection between trees and people even more
apparent with the speaker's use of the word "as."

 But what else can we make of lines 2-3?

 We have more enjambment here, so we're meant to read them as one

continuous thought.

 As for the thought itself, let's consider a few ideas. First, speech is a human
convention. We use it in lots of different ways but here it sounds as if "speech" is
something artificial since it's related to a "performance." When we perform we're
not being ourselves. We're being someone else either on purpose or otherwise.
And if it's "still," there's something even more stilted, or unnatural, about it.

 So if we begin to imagine relationships, we start to understand the metaphor here

a bit more. Relationships often start out in unnatural ways: awkward moments,
uncomfortable silences, things we don't mean to say, etc.

 Also we end line 3 with a period, which means we should take a moment to really
consider the completed thought. That "still performance" is important.
realize it’s the poet and his muse for this poem, someone he loves, who are arranging for a
meeting. This sudden shift from describing some trees to his love life could mean he intends
to compare himself and his love to that of the trees growing next to each other.

“Arranging by chance…” , the author and his love have decided to meet at a place without
telling each other about it. May be they know their schedules and where they would be at
what time of the day and decide to run in to each other making it look like co-incidence. It
could be about a teenage attraction and juvenile things teens do. And as he further writes we
realize they have decided to meet on a morning, but where? “….as far this morning from the
world as agreeing with it…” Their meeting is not fixed at a particular spot but at a place
which will be as far from the world as they agree (or disagree) with the world. Perhaps he is
comparing the idea of arranging co-incidental meetings to that of the branches of the trees
swaying in the wind and meeting each other at an undefined point and making it look as if it
was the wind (co-incidence) that caused them to meet and not their intentions.
With The second stanza ending with: “you and I are suddenly what the trees try...” it
becomes quite clear that the poet is comparing his love life to that of the trees growing next
to each other.

The idea that the trees connect to each other without talking and their branches touching
each other can be compared to a story the poet is trying to tell here: He might be standing
somewhere under or near “Some Trees” waiting for a co-incidental meet up with his love
and he realizes how much they are like these trees or the what the trees are trying to tell him
about them,
which is- Their merely being there means something .
The mere presence of the poet and his love next to each other, like the trees, means
something. It was meant to be, it was as destined as the presence of the trees that grew next
to each other without their will or knowledge. At this point it seems this is not a poem about
teenage attraction, it’s about true love.
And soon, like the trees growing their branches amid each other’s, the author and his love
will also touch, fall in love and explain their love to each other.

In the last two stanzas, he is glad not to have made a scene out of this whole affair which
could have attracted attention. He wants to be left alone with his love but they are already
surrounded: With a silence filled with questions to be asked and love to be expressed- the
noises, with the smile lit face of his love on the canvas(vision) of his eyes, and all that under
the light falling from between the rustling leaves of some trees- a moving light. With his love
expressed and accepted, their days become introverted and away from people. These
accents: the seclusion from people, the chorus of smiles; seem to be defending themselves,
explaining on their own, to the people, about his relationship, without him having to say
anything.

Lines 4-7
Arranging by chance

To meet as far this morning

From the world as agreeing
With it, […]

 The final thought in the first stanza is "arranging by chance," which seems to
detract a little from all the unnatural stuff we saw earlier. Spontaneity is a whole
lot more natural than something that's planned.

 Notice too that lines 3-4 rhyme "performance" with "chance." It looks like Ashbery
is making a stylistic connection between two opposing ideas: one as a
 "performance" that's unnatural, and the other a "chance" that is somewhat more
natural.

 Between lines 4 and 5 we have more enjambment that takes us not only from
one line to the next, but also one stanza to the next.

 From the first stanza we had the idea of "arranging by chance," but in this new
stanza it's related here to a meeting of some sort. The last time we checked,
trees don't have meetings, so it looks like we're dealing with people.

 The meeting is happening at morning, an important time of day. We can think of

it as a symbol for a fresh start, new beginnings, new worlds, scrambled eggs,
etc.

 What can we make of that? Are the people starting something new? That could
be, considering the poem opens with a subtle suggestion that the trees are part
of an extended metaphor that reflects a relationship of some sort. (Check
out "Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay" for more on that idea.)

 But n otice that line 5 reads, "as far this morning," so the speaker seems to be
getting at the idea of distance ("as far […] / From the world"), whether it's a
distance between people or between people and the world.

 And lo and behold, line 6 does a great job of clarifying that for us: "to meet as far
this morning from the world as agreeing with it." So maybe the people arranged
by chance to meet far from the rest of the world and yet are also somehow close
to it ("agreeing with it"). We know this seems a bit tricky. Put another way, it kind
of sounds like the speaker is keeping with the idea of individuals being separate
from the rest of the world but also always still a part of it. Got it?

 But again, since this is Ashbery, we need to weigh lots of different options as we
read. How else can we read lines 5-7? How does this meeting relate to line 4's
idea of "arranging by chance"?

 The speaker may be hinting at the simple essence of how the world works and
more importantly how relationships work. We can't really explain it with any
certainty, but we know the world works somehow and it works pretty well,
considering we're not in an utter state of chaos day in and day out. In other
 words, there's some sort of order to the universe, even if its meaning isn't
jumping out at us.

 It's kind of like this poem, right? As tricky as the lines may seem, there's some
order to Ashbery's style. Notice the structure of the poem that is equally divided
into five stanzas, each with four lines. We're noticing all those
different rhyming couplets in each stanza too, so there's quite a bit of order
here. For example, these couplet rhymes continue here too ("morning" and
"agreeing"). (Check out "Form and Meter" for more ideas.)
Lines 7-9
[…] you and I
Are suddenly what the trees try

To tell us we are:

 Going back to the start of line 7, we see that it's divided by a comma: the part
before the comma refers to the world while the part after refers specifically to
"you and I." So now we can definitely say that this part of the poem is dealing
with a relationship of some sort, between whoever the "you" might be and the
speaker ("I").

 And it's all connected—the world and its individuals, and trees for that matter. By
lines 8-9 these connections become even clearer: "you and I are suddenly what
the trees try / To tell us we are." Notice the colon in line 9 that looks similar to the
way it's used in the first stanza. It's safe to say we have some recurring structural
patterns here called parallelism. The recurring rhyming couplets, though
they're different in rhyme, are also part of this technique. We're really getting the
structural order of the poem that seems to be lacking a clear overall meaning we
might be searching for. Tricky Ashbery…

 Still, we know that the trees are trying to tell these two people something. We
don't know what that something is yet, but we do know there are some
similarities between their relationship and the trees.

 We have more enjambment here that looks similar to the sort of form we saw
earlier in the first and second stanzas. The concluding thoughts of one stanza
lead us to the new thoughts of the next. It's all working together.
  Finally, check out "Form and Meter" for more about these rhymed couplets like
"I" and "try."
Lines 10-12
That their merely being there
Means something; that soon
We may touch, love, explain.

 First up, we have a consonance alert, what with all the R sounds going on back
in line 9 ("are") and now in line 10 ("their," "merely," "there").

 And speaking of sounds, it's time to note the conversational sound that the
speaker seems to have in the poem. Even though the stanzas are divided into a
pretty common kind of verse, all the enjambment makes it sound more casual
than the poem's formal stanzas might look. This is a common style in Ashbery's
work. Sometimes it's easier to just read the poem like you would any other piece
of prose/narrative type work. When you do it that way, it tends to make more
sense because we can more easily hear the pieces fit together. (Check
out "Sound Check" for more on the poem's sound.)

 Now back to the question at hand: just what in the Sam Hill are the trees trying to
tell our couple? That's easy: "That their merely being there / Means something"
(10-11). So, it does mean something, although the speaker's not going to give up
just what that something might be. Are you rolling your eyes yet? Remember
what we said earlier: don't expect any answers.

 Although, we kind of have an answer, don't we? If the "trees being there" means
something, well then… that's an acceptable answer. We don't know what that
something is, but we know it's there.

 So the speaker seems to be encouraging us to experience things, like trees, in

the simplest way possible: appreciate that they're there and that the experience
means something, but don't rack your brain for a neat little answer because it
probably doesn't exist, or at least doesn't exist in the way you'd like it to. Feeling
any better?

 Lines 11-12 seem to be getting at the ways we tend to go about experiencing

things: "soon / We may touch, love, explain."
  Maybe the speaker is suggesting that the truest form of "experience" is in the
way we relate to one another.

 It's as if right now the relationship we're hearing about isn't touching, loving, or
explaining things in the way it should. And that kind of goes with the whole
performance idea we saw in the first stanza. There's something that's not entirely
honest about how things are occurring in this relationship right now. But the
speaker reminds us that "soon" this may all change. The "we" may also relate to
a bigger sense of "we" as a people, human beings.

 Finally, there's no enjambment between stanzas here. This one ends with a
period. Why is that? How is this stanza different from the others? Is it more
important, so it naturally needs its very own period? Let's read on to see…
Lines 13-15
And glad not to have invented
Such comeliness, we are surrounded:
A silence already filled with noises,

 Fancy word time: "comeliness" means beauty, in a conventional sense (if there is
one). So the speaker says no to inventing an artificial kind of beauty. Why
artificial? Because the word "invented" suggests it's man-made, rather than
natural. Think of Edward Scissorhands and all the landscaping he did.
Everyone thought it was "comely" but it's also kind of artificial, you know, making
a bush look like an elephant.

 So what can we make of "such comeliness"? Maybe the speaker's referring to

the comely beauty of the trees, or nature more generally. Maybe he's thinking
about the ways such beauty can be manipulated by man, like Scissorhands.

 So, even though the speaker and his partner didn't invent "such comeliness,"
they're still surrounded. Remember, colons are used to help introduce or list
things. In this case that colon could be a substitute for the word "by." Again,
Ashbery looks as if he's maintaining a specific kind of form with his use
of parallelism via punctuation, rhymed couplets, etc.

 According to line 15, then, the speaker and his partner are surrounded by "a
silence already filled with noises." See, it's not as confusing as it sounds, is it?
  Let us make it less confusing for you, gang. First, start with the obvious. We have
opposites going on here: "silence" and "noises." Why opposites? Opposites
attract? The universe is governed by opposites? Is it chemical? Nature has
opposites too, like the seasons. All sorts of things come to mind when we think of
opposites.

 We also have an example of a paradox here ("silence filled with noises"),

meaning something that is a contradiction (putting opposites together). At first
glance, a paradox doesn't make much sense, but in this context we (hopefully)
start to get it a little more. Maybe this paradox is getting at the idea that the world
is filled with opposites and, in order to understand one thing, you have to also
understand its opposite. Nothing is ever so simple as a neat little definition
standing all by itself without other things influencing it. There's always
surrounding "noise."

 Finally, we get some more enjambment at the end of this stanza, which leads us
to the next stanza.
Lines 16-18
A canvas on which emerges

A chorus of smiles, a winter morning.

Placed in a puzzling light, and moving,

 Don't look now, but there's more parallelism too here, going back to lines 15 and
continuing to lines 16 and 17 with the same beginning structure: "A silence […]," "A
canvas […]," and "A chorus […]." Check out "Form and Meter" for more on all these
parallel shenanigans.

 So what emerges from that canvas? Why, it's a chorus of smiles. Of course it is. It looks
like we're working with a set of images in line 17 that's getting at the common sorts of
things we experience during the course of our lives.

 But why a "chorus of smiles"? It's a strange sort of imagery that seems to be bridging the
gap between sound ("chorus") and image ("smiles"). Again, things are working together
here.
  A "winter morning" seems to be doing the same sort of thing because when we imagine
winter mornings we often think of things looking and sounding rather quiet, right? Winter
is a whole lot less noisy than summer, for instance. People tend to stay put indoors and
the snow acts as a pretty good muffler.

 So Ashbery seems to be working with lots of different ideas in these images. Some relate
to sound while others relate to image.

 Notice that line 17 ends with a period? We should take a minute to kind of let those
images settle in our minds and think about the things we associate with them.

 Line 18 tells us it's okay to be confused. (Gee, that's a relief.) "Placed in a puzzling light,
and moving" seems to really drive the point home that being confused by what we see,
feel, and hear is all part of the experience.

 But let's look even closer at line 18. We might consider the idea that the more we try to
make sense of something, the more it seems to "move" out of our grasp. Meaning's a
slippery little devil that doesn't want to be put into a box.

 And much of our understanding of experiences, especially relationships, works in a

similar way. We just can't get why Sandy doesn't love us like we love her, or why Bobby
always gets the girl even though he's a total bum? The more we try to figure these puzzles
out, the more miserable and confused we get.
Lines 19-20
Our days put on such reticence
These accents seem their own defense.

 That line break between 18 and 19, separated by a comma, indicates a change
in focus but since there's a comma there and not a period, we can assume that
both lines relate to one another.

 And the best connection we can find is one that links those puzzling experiences
with the speaker's own "days." So again, it looks like Ashbery is moving from the
more general experience of many to a more specific experience the speaker
seems to be having. We get more bridging of the individual and the larger world.

 But what's the deal with line 19? First up, it's another fancy word: "reticence,"
meaning a kind of shyness when speaking, as if a person can't really say what he
 or she feels. This reminds of the idea of speech from way back in line 2. The
trees put the speaker in mind of the idea that speaking is a kind of performance.
It comes with difficulty, which explains the "reticence" here.

 So what do we make of all this shyness and reservation and that final idea about
"defense"? And what the heck are "these accents"?

 Again, accents remind us of speaking. Yet it's important to remember that the
days are the things putting on this hesitant, reserved speech. Another way to
express your life is as your "days" (as in "I haven't see a cat do a backflip like that
in all my days"). So, one way to read this is that our lives are filled with speaking,
with accents, with performances. All of that, however, seems pretty far off from
the reality of our life, as if talking about life was a kind of defense—but against
what?

 Well, consider that "puzzling light"—consider the fact that the more we try to
"explain" things, the more puzzling those things become. But when we allow
things (and ourselves) to simply exist and not douse them in meaning or
artificiality (speaking and accents), the experience is far better. So don't try to jam
all of life into a noisy box of rational speech-making. Just let it be, like the trees
do. Words to live by, gang (ironically enough).

 More irony comes with this last rhymed couplet, which really brings this final
stanza together and maintains the orderly form that Ashbery uses in his poem. In
the face of puzzling reality, the poem itself puts forward a brave face in terms of
its ordered form. Check out "Form and Meter" for more on that.