“Planting a Sequoia” commentary

The lyrical poem “Planting a Sequoia” expresses the feeling about a father that is dealing with the loss of his recently died son. The father describes his feelings of loss and sadness, which gives the poem an elegiac tone. The poem driven by imagery and tone to give it more of an elegiac feeling, and is less based upon rhetorical devices. The poetic structure, the genre and the language are all in service of the big idea of dealing with the loss of the recently passed away son, planting a larger more enduring tree instead and showing the juxtaposition between life and death.
The poem is about loss and hope that the tree will live longer than the child did. This is shown by the last two stanzas which talk about the setting of the Sequoia tree and how it will grow old and see the different generations pass on. It shows the hope and honor of the poem of the family hoping that the Sequoia tree in remembrance of the dead son will grow old and tall and experience what the child did not accomplish. Not only will the tree live longer than the child would have lived, but it will continue growing when everything else has died and become “ashes.” This makes the poem speak more about the tree than the actual dead child, which also contradicts with the first stanzas that talk about the planting of the tree. In the last stanza the last verse “Silently keeping the secret of your birth,” shows that the father’s joy at birth that has turned into grief and will now be kept a secret to other family members.
“Planting a Sequoia” is driven by imagery and is split up into figurative and sensory imagery. Figurative imagery includes metaphors, and symbols that are present in the poem. The poem as a whole, talks about the father and brother of the passed away child digging a grave and burying the child, although actually they are only planting a Sequoia tree in memory of the left son. This makes the idea of the poem a metaphor, the tree that is planted is metaphorically a symbol for the lost son. This is well connected to the big idea of the poem that the family is dealing with the loss of the son, and the process of planting the tree metaphorically is the ‘saying goodbye’ from the family. Symbols that are used are the Sequoia tree for one, as it symbolizes the dead son. This is a strong symbol that is almost in juxtaposition to the idea of the son being dead, as the tree is alive and a potentially growing organism. In the second stanza the second verse, the “olive tree” and “fig tree” are both symbols for new life. This is referred back to the tradition in Sicily to plant a tree for the birth of a new child, which is also part of sensory imagery.
Sensory imagery plays a major role in the poem and is in every way in service of the main idea. In the first stanza the second verse “Digging this hole, laying you into it, carefully packing the soil.” is very descriptive as most of the poem, describing the planting of the tree, in service of the main idea which is metaphorically the burial of the dead son. The “blackened” horizon and the “dull gray” sky are very visual. This is in service of the big idea that the loss of the son is a very “blackened” and “dull gray” event. Another example of sensory imagery is “lock of hair, a piece of an infant’s birth cord,” which resembles sight. These descriptions are very strong and make the reader understand that the tree is not just a tree but metaphorically speaking resembles the loss of the child. It is not only a major point were the reader latest understands the burial, but it gives the Sequoia tree a greater importance. Several of the sensory imagery supplements the tone of the poem.
The tone of the poem is set by strong verbs which underline the importance of the word choice in language. Words such as “blackened”, “dull gray,” “no more”, “dead”, “scattered” and “torn down” give first, third, fourth and fifth stanza a heartrending and depressing tone; a tone of loss and sadness. The second stanza is in juxtaposition to the rest of the poems (a rhetorical device), as the mood is happy and celebrating in comparison to the rest of the poem. This is because the stanza talks about the birth of a child in Sicily and the tradition to plant a tree for the birth of a child, in juxtapose to the burial of a child. The heart of the poem “Wrapping in your roots a lock of hair, a piece of an infant’s birth cord” is in juxtaposition with the idea of life, as the stanza and the buried pieces’ main idea is death, and is in juxtaposition to the living tree that is alive and ready to grow old and tall.
Although the poem does not include too many rhetorical devices, some add to the tone and setting of the event. “An olive or a fig tree – a sign that the earth has one more life to bear” is in juxtaposition to the rest of the poem, as the father plants a tree to resemble the loss of his son. As mentioned before stanza two as a whole is in juxtaposition to the rest. In stanza four, verse one, “We will give you what we can” alliteration is used on the letter “w”. Another example of alliteration is the letter “s” in the same stanza the last verse “A slender shoot against the sunset.” These alliterations put the focus onto the verse and the specific words and its meaning towards the larger idea of the poem. The poem does not use any rhyme and therefore has no emphasis on the last words or endings of the verses; and is written in free verses.
The poem is driven by imagery which enhances the big idea of loss with tone, rhetoric, and different examples in service of it. The poet uses very descriptive imagery to describe the recent event and how the family is working on the loss, trying to get over it. With the use of sensory imagery the reader can interpret different meanings into the poem, and can get a better image of the scenery. All types of language are in service of the imagery, the tone, and the rhetorical devices, which again are in service of the big idea.