The Trees are Down – Charlotte Mew
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교육자를 위해: The Trees are Down – Charlotte Mew(English, World Literature)을(를) 위한 바로 쓸 수 있는 수업 슬라이드, 복습 노트 — 수업에 사용하거나, 학습자들이 실시간 게임으로 즐기는 인터랙티브 클래스 활동으로 진행하세요.
수업 노트
The poem at a glance
- "The Trees are Down" by English poet Charlotte Mew (1869–1928), published after her death in 1929.
- It records workmen cutting down the great plane-trees at the end of the gardens — often linked to the London square near Mew's home.
- An epigraph from the Book of Revelation frames it: "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees".
- The speaker moves from observation, to a memory of a dead rat in spring, to deep personal grief and a final spiritual protest.
- Free verse with irregular stanzas and line lengths; key ideas: destruction of nature, human indifference, loss, the sacredness of life.
Stanza 1: the sound of destruction
- "They are cutting down the great plane-trees at the end of the gardens": present tense — we witness it as it happens.
- A soundscape: "the grate of the saw", "the swish of the branches", "the crash of the trunks", "the rustle of trodden leaves" — auditory imagery and a list that builds relentlessly.
- Above it all, the men's "loud common talk" and "loud common laughs"; their shouts of "Whoops" and "Whoa".
- Repetition of "loud common" shows their coarseness and indifference — to them it is just a job.
Stanza 2: the dead rat
- "I remember one evening of a long past Spring" — the poem turns to memory.
- She found "a large dead rat in the mud of the drive": disgusting, "god-forsaken".
- Yet she reflects that in spring "even a rat should be alive": all life belongs to the season of renewal.
- Death in spring "unmade" the Spring for a moment — an idea the poem returns to.
Stanzas 3–4: the last bough and the lost spring
- "just one bough" remains, "Green and high / And lonely against the sky" — short, indented lines isolate it.
- "(Down now!—)": a bracketed shout breaks the line as the branch falls — form enacts the cut.
- Unlike the rat, this is no passing shock: "It is not for a moment the Spring is unmade to-day".
- The trees are "the whole of the whispering loveliness", felled "from root to stem".
- "Half the Spring, for me, will have gone with them": personal, permanent loss.
Stanza 5: grief and the angel
- "It is going now, and my heart has been struck with the hearts of the planes": the speaker's heart and the trees' are one.
- "Half my life it has beat with these" — through sun, rain, March wind, May breeze and great gales: a shared life across seasons.
- "There was only a quiet rain when they were dying": nature's muted mourning.
- "They must have heard the sparrows flying" — personification: the trees as sensitive beings.
- "But I, all day, I heard an angel crying: / 'Hurt not the trees.'" — the epigraph returns as a heavenly command; the ending is a spiritual protest.
Form, methods and comparisons
- Free verse, irregular stanzas and line lengths — natural speech, and a shape broken like the trees.
- Epigraph and ending echo each other — a circular structure with moral force.
- Contrast: violent, noisy human work vs quiet, whispering nature.
- Shifts in time: present → memory → present → future ("will have gone").
- Themes: nature destroyed, grief, indifference, the sacred.
- Comparisons: "The Trees" (Larkin — trees and time), "Tears, Idle Tears" (grief), "Time's Fool" (loss of a cherished place).
슬라이드
연습 문제
무료 미리 보기 — 37개 중 8개 문제. 가입하면 전부 볼 수 있어요.
1.Who wrote 'The Trees are Down'?
Easy- ACharlotte Mew
- BRuth Pitter
- CPhilip Larkin
- DFrances Cornford
2.What kind of trees are being cut down?
Easy- AOak trees
- BCherry trees
- CPine trees
- DPlane-trees
3.Where does the epigraph come from?
Easy- AA newspaper
- BWordsworth
- CThe Book of Revelation
- DShakespeare
4.What kind of imagery dominates the first stanza?
Medium- AColour
- BSound (auditory) imagery
- CSmell
- DTaste
5.How are the workmen presented?
Medium- ALoud, common and indifferent
- BSad and reluctant
- CSilent and careful
- DKind and gentle
6.What does the speaker remember finding one spring evening?
Medium- AA bird's nest
- BA lost child
- CA broken bough
- DA large dead rat
7.What does 'even a rat should be alive' suggest?
Medium- AThe speaker killed the rat
- BRats destroy trees
- CIn spring all life, however humble, belongs to the season of renewal
- DRats are the speaker's favourite animal
8.What is the effect of '(Down now!—)'?
Medium- AIt shows the men are gentle
- BIt interrupts the line as the last bough falls, enacting the cut
- CIt gives the time of day
- DIt is a stage direction for readers
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