The Trees are Down – Charlotte Mew

Learn it by playing

Answer these questions to earn energy, then fish and explore. No account needed.

For educators: ready-to-use lesson slides, revision notes for The Trees are Down – Charlotte Mew (English, World Literature) — use them in your lesson, or run the topic as an interactive class activity your learners play as a live game.

Lesson notes

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).

Slides

Sign up free to view the lesson slides

Step through every slide for this topic — plus flashcards and revision notes — with a free account.

SIGN UP — FREELOG IN

Practice questions

Free preview — 8 of 37 questions. Sign up to see them all.

  1. 1.Who wrote 'The Trees are Down'?

    Easy
    • ACharlotte Mew
    • BRuth Pitter
    • CPhilip Larkin
    • DFrances Cornford

  2. 2.What kind of trees are being cut down?

    Easy
    • AOak trees
    • BCherry trees
    • CPine trees
    • DPlane-trees

  3. 3.Where does the epigraph come from?

    Easy
    • AA newspaper
    • BWordsworth
    • CThe Book of Revelation
    • DShakespeare

  4. 4.What kind of imagery dominates the first stanza?

    Medium
    • AColour
    • BSound (auditory) imagery
    • CSmell
    • DTaste

  5. 5.How are the workmen presented?

    Medium
    • ALoud, common and indifferent
    • BSad and reluctant
    • CSilent and careful
    • DKind and gentle

  6. 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. 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. 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

Unlock all 37 questions, flashcards & more

Create a free account to see every question, the slides, flashcards and revision notes for this topic.

SIGN UP — FREELOG IN

Past papers

Past-paper practice for this topic is coming soon.
Coming soon