Summary Of Dirge In Woods

In the poem, “Dirge in Woods” by George Meredith, Meredith presents a speaker who shares his or her thoughts on a pine tree in the woods. The speaker vividly describes the looks and sounds of the pine tree and its surroundings. Throughout the poem, the speaker speaks to his or her audience in a contemplative yet matter-of-fact tone. The audience that the speaker is talking to is humanity. The speaker presents the theme of continuity and presents his audience with his observations regarding the pine tree and the environment around it. The speaker explains to the audience that, even though individual living things die, such as humans or plants, the greater species as a whole continues to live on. In other words, when one individual dies another

individual is born.
From the start of this poem, the speaker walks us through the life cycle of a pine tree which is representative of all life itself. The poem opens with the resting peaceful pine tree being disrupted by a wind that sways its branches, “A wind sways the pines” (line 1). As the pines sway in the wind, things living on the pine branches, like pine cones or pine needles, get disrupted, some slightly and some more so. This gust of the wind is representative of a change or problem or stress that occurs in a person’s daily life. Sometimes the change or problem could be minor, maybe like gentle swaying of the branches but sometimes the problem or stress could be more significant like stronger and more violent or even tumultuous swinging of the branches. All the while, the branches sway to varying degrees, but the base of the tree stays steady similar to a person moving through life on a daily basis experiencing each day’s ups and downs. After the first break in the poem, the speaker then elaborates on the appearance of the base of the tree noting the pine tree’s prominent roots, “Of the roots here and there” (line 6).

As the pine tree ages each day, the roots of the tree grow and provide steady strength at the base of the tree just as a person ages they become more established and settled. Eventually, each living thing on the pine tree branches ages and then slowly dies at its own pace. Then the tree lets each dead pine needle or pine cone fall of its branches to the ground below. As the pine tree loses needles from some branches, other branches are just starting to sprout new needles and the circle of life continues. When the needles die they gently fall to the ground below and land sprinkling across the vast tree roots that have developed over time. Eventually the needles that have fallen spread and so begins new life. While dead needles fall at the base of the tree, there continues to be swaying branches above, sometimes gently and sometimes not so gently. After the poem’s final break, the speaker mentions that above the tree, clouds are constantly moving past: “As the clouds the clouds chase;” With the pine tree representing a person’s life, and swaying branches symbolizing life’s ups and downs, the stream of moving clouds are indicative of life moving past. Sometimes, the

clouds move slowly and other times the clouds rush past. Often times at the start of a person’s life time seems to go more slowly, but as a person ages they are cognizant of how fast paced their life can be and how often they seem to feel that time flies by. Many people feel as if they are often in a race getting through each day. It can be thought that as a pine tree grows and develops more branches this is similar to a person maturing and taking on more responsibilities. As the clouds roll by above, each person moves through their life, living each day, leading up to their eventual last day and their death. All people die just as the needles fall off of the pine branches and so the cycle continues in the word just as it does through the woods where all of the trees live.
The speaker’s use of poetic devices effectively describes the pine tree and its surroundings.

The speaker’s rhetoric gives us a clear picture of the pine tree’s existence from the wind that “sways the pines” to the when the pine tree “drops its dead” and it becomes easy to see how symbolic the pine tree is, clearly paralleling human life. The speaker gives us a simple yet visual picture of the impressive pine tree in the woods. You can listen to the words of the poem with your eyes closed and easily see the massive tree with many swaying branches and the steady unwavering base. You then cannot help but liken the pine tree’s journey to that of a person’s life. The wind that sways the pines is representative of the challenges that people face. Some days are easy, and on these days maybe their would be no wind or breeze that sways the branches. Other days are filled with changes or problems and the wind on these days has certainly picked up and is blowing the branches around. The speaker uses effective syntax constructing sentences that are well written throughout the poem detailing the pine tree’s journey citing the the “roots here and there” to the when “the pine tree drops its dead.” In addition to rhetoric and syntax, the speaker’s use of diction paints an explicit picture of the circle of life both for the pine tree and in the larger picture of human life. The individual lines in the poem seem to vary with some being enjambed and others end-stopped. The speaker seems

to use end-stopped phrases to create a break in the poem, finishing each thought. The use of enjambed phrasing allows the individual thoughts to develop and then close with an end-stopped phrase.