All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

Analysis, meaning and summary of William Carlos Williams's poem Winter Trees

5 Comments

  1. Gary Smith says:

    Note to students:

    I think this poem is largely meant to evoke an image in the readers imagination. Other than the mood this poem portrays, and the claim about trees being wise, and the observation that a lot of work goes into putting leaves on, then taking them off, I wouldn’t read too much into this poem. It is mostly meant to be a cool image of a tree at night with the moon seen through it’s branches. Pretty nice.

    Disclaimer — this is just my opinion.

  2. Jayyy says:

    Same here… the test is tomorrow. Blahh. Too bad I can’t find anything. I heard it was something about the pains of being a mother and “helplessly nuturing” or something… I don’t know.

  3. Lil Lady says:

    yeah im kinda having a test on this poem, i can’t find any info about when it was written or any of that. you should really put it on so for next year, the little kids can pass the test:]

  4. Big Mama says:

    I don’t even know what this poem is about…it is really confusing. Someone should make a website to interpret it.
    Thank You

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