The Trees Are
Down
By Charlotte Mew
About Charlotte Mew
• 15 November 1869 – 24 March 1928
• two of her siblings suffer from mental illness, and were committed to
institutions
• Three others died later on, leaving her with her mum and sister
• she made a pact with her sister to never marry in order not to pass on the
mental illness to their children
• She suffered depression after her sister’s death from cancer in 1927 and
therefore committed suicide
Ideas from the poem
• the poem portrays not only the trees being chopped down but also the
poet herself, Mew’s life, how she was ‘cut down’ by the deaths of her
siblings around her, first her mother then her sister, which lead her to end
her own life with her own hands whereas the trees’ life were ended by
mankind as “they are cutting down the great plane trees at the end of the
gardens”
• Mew connected the link between the trees and the rat by comparing their
lives together, saying that even a disgusting and “a god-forsaken thing” like
a rat has its chance to live, so why aren’t the trees allowed to live and had
to be ‘killed’ by humans
• Later on, Mew also included animal like “sparrows” and the “small
creeping creatures near the end of the poem, emphasizing the importance
of the trees and how it’s being ‘killed’ by humans without mercy as he
“common laughs of the men” were heard
• the poem is also connected sympathetically and suggests a spiritual
dimension with the ‘angel’ of the penultimate line and initial quotation
from Revelation, one of the books from the Bible at the very beginning
of the poem, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees”, which
suggests the importance of the trees to human beings
• why Spring? Why not Summer of Winter? Mew chose Spring over the
other seasons in this poem as it is usually when the trees and flowers
are at their best, without the trees having no leaves etc, and therefore
chosen that time to cut down the trees.
•“lonely against the sky” suggests the landscape of a sky but without the
trees hanging halfway in the air, leaving the portrait to be just be the sky,
this lead to the trees being ‘lonely’
Subject & Tone
Subject
• the poet wrote the poem in reaction to the feelings of the plane trees in
Euston Square Garden being cut down in the early 1920s
• Humans cruelty and cold heartedness towards the trees being cut down
and how the trees’ lives meant nothing to them
Tone
• Lament for the feeling of “the great plane trees” being cut down
• Sadness is shown through the phrase “fine grey rain”, suggests a subtlety
in sadness
• A sense of desolation and loss as the trees was her direction in life and
how it have been there with her through the variation of nature, ‘sun’,
‘rains’, ‘wind’ etc
Speaker/Point of View
First person narrative
• Suggest that she had some sort of connection with the trees in relation of
her own life and them, which again contributes to the idea of the trees
being a metaphor of how the deaths of her siblings has affected her own
life
• She’s lament that the trees are being cut down and yet the humans
showed mercy no in doing such things, without realising the importance of
the trees to not only human beings, but also Mew herself
• the poet herself had a strong connection with the trees as “[her] heart
has been struck with the hearts of the planes”, suggesting she does have
feelings with the trees being gone now and how Spring “have gone with
them”
Form/Structure
• Poem started with a quote from one of the bible – Revelation
 ‘he’ suggests the angel from the east
 suggest that the narrator feel sympathetic for the trees as perhaps she
sees them for more than just a physical and natural object
• Poem ends with biblical reference as well
 starting and ending with the same thing
 “I heard an angel crying : ‘Hurt not the tree’ “ refers back to the angel
who “cried with a loud voice” at the start of the poem, shows how
much the angel had tried to stop the trees from being cut down, but
failed in doing so
 create a sense that the men should be ashamed for cutting down the
trees as the angels cried and begged not to
 Reflects the poet’s faith in Christianity as she believes the existence of
the angels and how they reacted towards the trees being cut down
• The sentence in the poem seems unorganized, unevenly structured
 literally refers to the image of the place after the trees were cut
down as it feels uneven, unpleasant, by just looking at it
 Metaphorically refers to her life, after she lost her siblings, her life
shattered all over the place as she struggles to get herself back on
track and live a normal and even life
• Longer sentence were continued on to the next line and yet the poet
chose not to continue writing the sentence on the same line, she started
the next sentence instead e.g.
“Did once, for a moment, unmake the Spring, I might never
have thought of him again.”
 perhaps to focus on the subject of the sentence
 in this case, the focus is on the rat, and how the poet could not get
over the death of the “god-forsaken thing”
Imagery
• “Swish of the branches”, “Crash of the trunks” and “The rustle of trodden
leaves” gives an extended imagery of the plane trees to the readers as it
is also counted as Onomatopoeia, allow us to picture the trees with
horrified sounds of it being cut down
• “dead rat” is used as an imagery perhaps to portray the idea of even
though the rat is an animal, it still deserve to be ‘alive’, just like the trees,
they should have a chance to live their life
• “Spring” gives a beautiful sight to the readers as it is when the leaves are
growing back on the trees and the flowers are starting to bloom, yet the
poet said its Spring time when the trees are being cut down, which
suggests how humanity shows no mercy in ruining the beautiful sight with
their own hands
Personal Response
• Poet is portraying her feelings about the plane trees being cut down and
how she heard the angel trying to save them but failed
• The plane trees could be emotionally attached to her and perhaps are
seen to represent her siblings who have left her one by one, just like how
the trees are being cut down, as “there is just one bough” which suggests
this is only one tree that has been cut down, and there are more to go
later on
• It is obvious that the poet could not get over the fact that the plane trees
have been cut down and the place is now “lonely against the sky” as “[her]
heart has been struck with the hearts of the planes” which also explains
how she could not get over the death of her siblings and therefore fell into
great depression and decided to end her own life with her own hands, just
like how the humans had ended the trees’ ‘lives’ without showing any
sympathy at all
Compare with other poems
• My Parents
– Stephen Spender
• A Quoi Bon Dire
– Charlotte Mew
• The Trees
– Phillip Larkin