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A poem about the loss of a great soul and the impact of his or her influence on the speaker's life. The poem uses symbolism and imagery to show how the speaker's senses, memory, and mind are affected by the loss of a person who was a great influence. The poem is inspired by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Maya Angelou's birthday.
- A Child Of Mine
This famous poem by Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959) has been...
- Henry David Thoreau
About Henry David Thoreau. Henry David Thoreau (July 12,...
- A Child Of Mine
May 28, 2014 · And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same,...
- Summary
- Poetic Techniques
- When Great Trees Fall Analysis
In the first lines, the speaker begins by using an extended metaphor to describe a natural scene. She speaks about the reaction of animals when “great trees fall”. They hide, hunker down, and “lumber after safety”. The metaphorcompares the death of loved ones to the monumental shifts that occur when large and powerful trees fall in the forest. As t...
‘When Great Trees Fall’ by Maya Angelou is a five stanza poem that’s separated into uneven sets of lines. The stanzas range in length from five lines up to fourteen. There is no specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern but Angelou does make use of several poetic techniques that help to unify the text and create a feeling of rhythm and rhyme. These...
Stanza One
This poem opens with the metaphor of the tree that falls. It, of course, symbolizesthe loss of a great person. When a great tree falls, it is felt for miles around. In the same way, when a great soul departs, the effects are felt deep and far. The image of the “rocks on distant hills shudder[ing]” symbolizes the ways in which the death causes people, even distant people, to feel despair and shudder. The lions which “hunker down” reflect the way some people will react to the loss. The loss cau...
Stanza Two
The metaphor continues in this stanza. The speaker, having already revealed the way in which great things are affected by the death of a someone great, now turns her attention to the “small things”. This suggests that the loss of someone great is felt among the great and among the small. This could mean that the physically small, children, feel the effects of the loss as much as their older counterparts. It could also mean that those who are unknown, without fame or political significance, fe...
Stanza Three
With the third stanza, the speaker shifts from her use of metaphor to speaking directly about death. Just as the great tree that falls causes ripples for miles, so the great soul departed move affectsthe hundreds or thousands of hearts he or she has touched during the time they lived. The speaker describes the way in which the air, even, seems to become “light” and “sterile”. It is hard to breathe when one has lost an important loved one. The speaker describes the way in which those affected...
Aug 23, 2021 · When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken.
When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety. When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly.
in tall grasses, and even elephants. lumber after safety. When great trees fall. in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses. eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes. light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with. a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines,
A poem about the loss of great people and the comfort of their memories. The poem compares the deaths of "great" people to the falling of "great" trees in a forest, and celebrates the knowledge that the world is a better place because they once existed. The poem was written in 1987 after the death of James Baldwin, a fellow writer and activist.
