Thick with Blossoms

Last week, I posted about my theory that Williams seems to have a “thing” for the Venus figure. I won’t assert anything particular to Venus on today’s blog, but I will be pointing out the general sensuality of Williams’ diction. During class, someone pointed out a poem that had stuck out to me earlier in the course of my reading. I’m so glad we had time in class to discuss the poem, for my peers were able to round out my thoughts on a few matters. Plus, it always feels good to hear people’s interpretations—especially when their thoughts seem to mirror what I thought and felt during my reading/study time.

Perhaps it is because I already had Venus on the brain, but when I read Williams’ “Tree” I immediately picked up on the very sensual diction:

The tree is stiff, the branch

is arching, arching, arching

to the ground. Already its tip

reaches the hats of the passersby

children leap at it, hang on it—

bite on it. It is rotten, it

will be thick with blossoms in

the spring. Then it will break off

of its own weight or from the pulls

of the blossom seekers who will

ravish it. Freed of this disgrace

the tree will remain, stiffly upright

I was reluctant to read beyond the exact meaning Williams expresses, but I did wonder if the tree perhaps was a phallic symbol. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to hear another student in my class pose the question of whether anyone else had picked up on the same idea. Ultimately, during the course of my notes, I deduced that the poem was perhaps sensual in itself, but that the sensuality of the poem was more to express the overall eroticism of nature that Williams describes in so much of his poetry. I have somewhat abandoned my original suspicion that the tree may represent a phallus.

Looking at the diction, however, it seems logical to posit that the verbs “arching” and “ravish” seem quite sensual. Additionally, it seems quite romantic to think of a tree being “thick with blossoms”—which reminds me of the fertility of nature, of nature’s ability to keep producing these thick blossoms that weigh the tree’s branch down.

The part that becomes problematic for my interpretation is Williams’ juxtaposition of the word “rotten” followed by “thick with blossoms”. This seems counterintuitive. My notes scrawled in red ask questions of this line like, “Can a rotten branch still produce these thick blossoms that sound so beautiful? Can beauty still come from rot? Why would Williams choose to juxtapose these lines? Why is the tree ‘freed of this disgrace’…is the thick, blossoming branch a disgrace? Why would he call it this?”

Some of the answers I thought of circle back to mankind’s general demand on nature. It is the “pulls of blossom seekers who will ravish it” that is offered as one reason for the branch’s demise. Earlier in the poem, the “children leap at it, hang on it—bite on it.” This seems to indicate that the branch, with its “arching, arching, arching to the ground” is a sort of go between—it is what connects the humans in the poem to the stoic tree that still stands at the end of the poem.

It seems plausible that Williams may be commenting on the human response to nature—we do often enjoy it to the point of abuse. As a nature lover, Williams may have been simply pointing out that which we so often overlook—the ability of nature to sustain itself, despite humankind’s constant demands and damages. Overall, it seems like the language celebrates the beauty, sustainability, and sensuality of nature.