ANALYSIS OF THE POEM"THE TREES" BY PHILIP LARKIN, PAGE 252

The Trees

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

The title makes me expect the poem will be about nature. The structure of the poem is made up of three quatrains:

-the first one introduces the topic of the poem: the poem describes the leaves that are coming to life again in Spring.

-The second one conveys a poet's doubt: the poet wonders wheter if it is the uman beings to grow old while the trees are born again and he also provides an answer to the question: he says that trees die like people, even if they look new every year as if they were playing a trick.

 -The last quatrain concludes the poem: the poet underlines how, despite they die every year, they seem to be full with life and freshness.

Phonological level

The rhymes' scheme is ABBA, ABBA, ABBA: it links final words, indeed they are linked to life , death and revival.