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Summary of Poem - When Great Trees Fall

Maya Angelou's poem 'When Great Trees Fall' explores the profound impact of losing loved ones, using the metaphor of fallen trees to illustrate the emotional turmoil experienced by the living. The poem employs various poetic techniques, including alliteration, enjambment, and repetition, to create a rhythmic flow and deepen the emotional resonance. Ultimately, it conveys a message of hope and renewal, suggesting that the existence of those we lose can inspire us to become better.

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102 views2 pages

Summary of Poem - When Great Trees Fall

Maya Angelou's poem 'When Great Trees Fall' explores the profound impact of losing loved ones, using the metaphor of fallen trees to illustrate the emotional turmoil experienced by the living. The poem employs various poetic techniques, including alliteration, enjambment, and repetition, to create a rhythmic flow and deepen the emotional resonance. Ultimately, it conveys a message of hope and renewal, suggesting that the existence of those we lose can inspire us to become better.

Uploaded by

smitha jose
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Summary of Poem - When Great Trees Fall

‘When Great Trees Fall‘ by Maya Angelou is a moving poem that discusses
the impact lost loved ones have on the living.

In the first lines, the speaker begins by using an extended metaphor to


describe a natural scene. She speaks about the reaction of animals when “great
trees fall”. They hide, hunker down, and “lumber after safety”. The metaphor
compares the death of loved ones to the monumental shifts that occur when large
and powerful trees fall in the forest.

As the poem progresses, she moves on to directly speak about “great souls”
and how human beings react to loss. The third stanza discusses one’s inability to
breathe and the sharpening one’s memory undergoes. The poem concludes with a
message of hope and renewal, suggesting that after a loved one’s death that “We
can be…better. For they existed”.

Poetic Techniques

‘When Great Trees Fall’ by Maya Angelou is a five stanza poem that’s
separated into uneven sets of lines. The stanzas range in length from five lines up
to fourteen. There is no specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern but Angelou
does make use of several poetic techniques that help to unify the text and create a
feeling of rhythm and rhyme. These include examples of figurative language, such
as metaphors, as well as alliteration, enjambment, and repetition.

Alliteration occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear


close together, and begin with the same letter. For instance, “suddenly sharpened”
in the eighth line of the third stanza and “breathe, briefly” in the fourth line of the
third stanza.

Enjambment and Repetition


Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It
occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a
reader down to the next line, and the next, quickly. One has to move forward in
order to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence.

It can be seen throughout ‘When Great Trees Fall’ but one prominent
moment includes the transition between lines two and three of the third stanza.
Here, a reader must jump down to the next line to find out what the “air around us
becomes”. Another poignant use of enjambment can be seen in the space between
lines one and two, as well as two and three, of the fourth stanza. Here, Angelou
discusses the emotional moments between life and death and feelings of loss that
consumes a prior reality.

Angelou also makes use of repetition or the use and reuse of a specific
technique, word, tone or phrase within a poem. In this case, repetition ties into the
structure of the poem itself. The title, ‘When Great Trees Fall’ is in part utilized as
a refrain throughout the poem. For example, at the start of stanzas one and two, it
is used word for word. At the beginning of stanzas three, four, and five the phrase
is altered to clear up the metaphor. Rather than speaking of trees as a stand-in for
human life, she addresses the “Great souls” directly.

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