The trees in this poem are a metaphor for women. These trees are inside a glassed-in veranda. This is an unnatural environment for them because inside the veranda "no bird could sit / no insect hide." This is similar to the unnatural state of women in society in 1963, when Rich wrote this poem. Women were expected to be satisfied encased in their homes as housewives, just as the trees are enclosed inside a porch.

However, the poem expresses hope. The trees' leaves and twigs exert themselves, straining against the glass, and their roots break through the floor. They are

like newly discharged patients

half-dazed, moving

to the clinic doors.

This is a simile, comparing trees breaking out of their glass cages to women of that time period who, after the publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and the beginnings of the woman's movement, were beginning to move in a dazed way out of their own artificial worlds.

In the second part of the poem, the speaker shifts to an "I" voice. She describes writing letters that scarcely mention the departure of the trees, meaning the stirrings of female rebellion. Nevertheless, she urges us, as readers of her poem, to

Listen. The glass is breaking.

The trees are stumbling forward

into the night.

It might not be evident to everyone, the speaker says, but women are on the move and will no longer be satisfied to be confined to their restricted and stunted roles in society.

Interpret the poem "The Trees" by Adrienne Rich from a feminist perspective.

To help you get started on this interpretation, let's take a look at the symbolism in Adrienne Rich's poem “The Trees.” Think of the trees as people, women in particular. These trees, the speaker says, are trapped inside a house rather than out in the forest, which is empty. This can symbolize women being trapped inside themselves or inside their social situations, unable to be fulfilled because they are not in the place they were intended to be.

The forest, too, suffers because the trees are not in their place. There is nowhere for birds to sit or insects to hide or shadows to play. The trees provide all these when they are in their proper places. Women, too, provide the world with a great many benefits when they are able to find their spot in the world.

The poem, however, suggests that the trees are moving outside. The forest “will be full of trees by morning,” the speaker asserts. These trees are finding their way out of their confinement. Their roots are escaping through cracks in the floor. Their leaves and twigs and boughs are reaching outward. These trees are like women escaping from the confines of their previous lives, ready to branch out in new ways.

When the trees get outside, the speaker says, they are “half-dazed” like “newly discharged patients.” The forest takes some getting used to. Women, too, when they enter into the world in new ways must adjust to new circumstances. Yet they are moving, like the trees stumbling off into the night. It will not be an easy transition, but it must be done, for trees belong in the forest, and women belong in the world.