I believe that with this poem, Glück transmits the melancholy she feels when she sees how humans alter nature. After I read the poem, it seemed to me that there must be some sort of story behind it. In my interpretation, I inferred that the author probably spent a day in a place like a woodshop— somewhere where she saw firsthand how trees are chopped and polished in order to form more “perfect” shapes. As she witnessed this process, she probably asked herself why it is that people desire to change nature’s original form—is it really necessary?
However, when Glück writes this poem, it is nighttime already, and she has found an answer to her own question. She knows it is not necessary, and she actually goes a step further and feels “bitter sadness” for all humankind. For her, the issue now goes beyond desire versus necessity. She now outright condemns the practice of altering nature. She uses powerful images and metaphors to show how “stationary” trees are unnatural, and they are therefore “writhing” as if to break free. Her use of the word “twisted” in the last line is very interesting. Normally, we think of trees as twisted in their natural state, because they have imperfections— they can be misshapen or deformed. However, the word “twisted” also has another connotation. This word can be associated with something corrupted, perverted or abnormal. This is the idea that Glück seeks to emphasize in her poem. Nature is not meant to be shaped by human beings—it is good as it is. Tampering with it just takes its charm away. It corrupts it, transforms it into something that is no longer natural.
I really liked this poem when I first read it because it is extremely relevant to what is going on in the world today. Nowadays, we tend to see the earth just as a provider of resources, which we then alter in order to meet consumer preferences and necessities. However, I do think that we have to consider Glück’s ideas on what nature should really be. If we acknowledge that nature is something we have to respect, that it isn’t something we can just corrupt as we please, we might even find a more sustainable way of life, something that the world desperately needs.
However, when Glück writes this poem, it is nighttime already, and she has found an answer to her own question. She knows it is not necessary, and she actually goes a step further and feels “bitter sadness” for all humankind. For her, the issue now goes beyond desire versus necessity. She now outright condemns the practice of altering nature. She uses powerful images and metaphors to show how “stationary” trees are unnatural, and they are therefore “writhing” as if to break free. Her use of the word “twisted” in the last line is very interesting. Normally, we think of trees as twisted in their natural state, because they have imperfections— they can be misshapen or deformed. However, the word “twisted” also has another connotation. This word can be associated with something corrupted, perverted or abnormal. This is the idea that Glück seeks to emphasize in her poem. Nature is not meant to be shaped by human beings—it is good as it is. Tampering with it just takes its charm away. It corrupts it, transforms it into something that is no longer natural.
I really liked this poem when I first read it because it is extremely relevant to what is going on in the world today. Nowadays, we tend to see the earth just as a provider of resources, which we then alter in order to meet consumer preferences and necessities. However, I do think that we have to consider Glück’s ideas on what nature should really be. If we acknowledge that nature is something we have to respect, that it isn’t something we can just corrupt as we please, we might even find a more sustainable way of life, something that the world desperately needs.
