The poem A Tree Telling of Orpheus by Denise Levertov is about a tree that starts to grow knowledge and spirituality by Orpheus’ music. This essay will explain how the tree, who is speaking, represents a child who rejoices in gaining knowledge from a parent and how Orpheus represents a parent that extends knowledge to a child. The essay will also explain how the tree deals with the loss of the parent figure, Orpheus and how he overcomes the grief. The word rejoiced from this poem will be explained, since the may be difficult or unusual to some.
The mood of the poem Levertov was a melancholic one. The tree, the child figure of the story, is dealing with a passing of Orpheus, the father figure of the story. In the end, the tree processes the sadness and moves on with his life knowing that Orpheus’ music will live on. Also, the title “A Tree Telling of Orpheus” means that the tree, which is speaking in 1st person narrative is recounting us the personal story about Orpheus, the outstanding musician. We will go further into the story in this essay.
Levertov used the tree’s uprooting as an imagery to symbolize the tree’s denial of Orpheus’ death. “rivery sweep of lyre-tones becoming slowly again And I in terror but not doubt of what I must do in anguish, in haste, wrenched from the earth root after root, the soil heaving and cracking, the moss tearing asunder—“ (Levertov, 1970, ln.90-99). In this passage, the tree’s imagery on the uprooting shows how the tree’s loss of Orpheus’ music with the addition of grief and denial of Orpheus’ death is slowly hurting the tree. The passage supports the thesis because when a real child loses their parent, they will go into a deep denial of loss, just like the tree, in the poem lost Orpheus, who represents the parent.
Levertov used the tree as a metaphor to show how the tree changes and grow when it hears Orpheus’ music. “I seemed to be singing as he sang, I seemed to know what the lark knows; all my sap was mounting towards the sun that by now had risen, the mist was rising, the grass was drying, yet my roots felt music moisten them deep under earth.” (Levertov, 1970, ln.34-39). In this passage, the use of the tree as a metaphor shows how the tree grew knowledge, spirituality, joy, and fear for the first time by listening to Orpheus’ music. This passage supports the thesis because the tree represents a child gaining knowledge from a parent and Orpheus’ singing represents a parent spreading knowledge to their child, which is the tree.
Levertov used the tree as a personification to make the tree feel like a real human with a growth in knowledge. “Then as he sang it was no longer sounds only that made the music: he spoke, and as no tree listens I listened, and language came into my roots” (Levertov, 1970, ln.44-47). In this passage, the tree is gaining knowledge just like a human. For example, after the tree listened to Orpheus’ music, the tree now felt, as he understood humanities’ sound, war, passion, grief, words, and Orpheus’ journeys and dreams. As we talked about earlier in the metaphor passage, after Orpheus’ murder, the tree grieves and cannot forget about Orpheus’ great power of music. This supports my thesis because a loss of the parent figure, Orpheus, saddened the tree, just like a real child would experience true sadness with the loss of its parent.
Levertov uses 1st person narrative to make the tree feel more like us and not just an object. In this passage, the tree expresses his feelings when he ultimately derives a conclusion and grasps the reality of Orpheus’ death. “We have waited. He does not return. It is said he made his earth-journey, and lost what he sought. It is said they felled him and cut up his limbs for firewood.” (Levertov, 1970, ln.143-148). The passage explains how even though the tree has waited for Orpheus’ return; he never came back to them. Earlier, we explained the tree’s denial of Orpheus’ death and the pain it was causing to the tree, but this time, the tree accepts Orpheus’ fate upon hearing the murder of Orpheus and the story of what eligibly have happened to his remains. From here on, the tree feels more grief and feels the need to listen to his music again. The poem being in the 1st person perspective gives the reader more realistic looks at the tree’s true feeling that festers inside of him. If this poem was in, for example, 3rd person, it will feel as someone is telling a person an impersonal story they have recently heard, rather than an intimate and emotional personal story. The passage supports the thesis because a child will not accept their parent’s unfortunate fate, even though the child actually knows what happened to their parents. The same thing applies to the tree’s denial of Orpheus’ death, still hoping for Orpheus to return.
The meaning that Levertov was getting across in this poem was about a child gaining knowledge and stories of a grand adventure from their parents that goes around the world. He used the imagery/metaphor of a tree, which represents a child, which listened to a powerful musician named Orpheus, a man that can even make the trees to follow his music and falling in love with his music. In this case, Orpheus represents a parent because he used music to give knowledge to his child, the tree. As we explained earlier, the story was told from the point of view of a tree to give it a feeling of maybe you or me being the tree and feeling his emotions and grief from the loss of a great friend or a loved one. As the story progresses, the tree grows knowledge from Orpheus’ music like sound, war, passion, grief, words, and Orpheus’ journeys and dreams. In this passage, we will learn what kinds of stories Orpheus has told the tree. “He told of journeys, of where sun and moon go while we stand in the dark, of an earth-like journey he dreamed he would tale some day deeper than roots…” (Levertov, 1970, ln.54-57). The passage tells the story of a musician that wants to explore around the world and enjoy playing music. This represents Orpheus as a parent because a parent would talk to their child about stories of their journeys that they have been in the past. Orpheus’s story and music are what initially gets the tree invested in Orpheus and starts to learn more about human emotions and feelings. The passage supports the thesis because the story is about a tree, represented as a child is gaining knowledge from Orpheus, represented as a parent.
The final subject that we will discuss is the message that Levertov was trying to tell us in this poem. Levertov wanted to get across was most likely about how if a loved one has been deceased and you do not accept the reality of their death and move on, the pain of the loss will linger in your inner beings and start to harm you slowly. Just like the early passages in the poem, where the tree does not accept Orpheus’ death and starts to harm him. “And I in terror but not doubt of what I must do in anguish, in haste, wrenched from the earth root after root” (Levertov, 1970, ln.93-98). The tree will accept the reality and moves on for the most part later in the poem, but until then, the tree was in a great pain. The poem A Tree Telling of Orpheus was a sad story, but it teaches the reader a great lesson; even though the passing of a loved one will leave a surviving family member very melancholic, it is up to the survivor to move on. Or else, the survivor will get depressed even more like the tree, perhaps leading to poor choices like harming oneself. The tree gets back on his knees and says the following words “We feel, as our rings increase, something that lifts our branches, that stretches our furthest leaf-tips further. The wind, the birds, do not sound poorer but clearer, recalling our agony, and the way we danced. The music!” (Levertov, 1970, ln.154-162). The passage supports the thesis because how even though the tree, the child figure of the story is still grieving from Orpheus, the parent figure’s loss, the tree learns his music or his wisdom will live on with the tree for an eternity.
Now, we will discuss a word that some people might find it to be difficult to understand. To begin with, the author uses the word “rejoiced” to convey happiness. The passage here will explain why the tree rejoices. “Fire he sang, that trees fear, and I, a tree, rejoiced in its flames.” (Levertov, 1970, ln.63-64). The passage shows how the tree rejoices or celebrates while listening to Orpheus’ music, even when surrounded by fear.
In conclusion, the poem A Tree Telling of Orpheus by Denise Levertov is about a child, represented by a tree, gaining knowledge and stories of a grand adventure from their parent, represented by Orpheus, that goes around the world and the child’s loss of the parent. The poem teaches us to not linger onto the loss of a loved one to not harm ourselves, just like how the tree did in the story upon the hearing of Orpheus’ death in verse 90-99. The tree, in denial of Orpheus’ death, tries to grow out of the ground to find Orpheus, but just ended up harming himself. The poem would be great to share with students who are dealing with loss, especially around the teenage age, since they may be experiencing these powerful emotions for the first time.