Poetry · Chapter
Aspens explained
The poem reflects on the persistent whispering of aspens at a crossroads, contrasting their ceaseless sound with the now-silent human activities of the smithy and inn, and meditates on the inevitability of grief and the enduring nature of t
What happens
The poem reflects on the persistent whispering of aspens at a crossroads, contrasting their ceaseless sound with the now-silent human activities of the smithy and inn, and meditates on the inevitability of grief and the enduring nature of the trees.
Themes in this chapter
Nature and the Seasons
The aspens talk of rain and lose their leaves, embodying the seasonal cycle and the persistence of nature.
Solitude and Reflection
The empty, silent smithy and inn, and the ghostly crossroads, evoke a mood of solitude and contemplative grief.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The speaker observes the aspens and reflects on their ceaseless grieving, linking their nature to his own rhymes.
Key passages
“The whisper of the aspens is not drowned, And over lightless pane and footless road, Empty as sky, with every other sound Not ceasing, calls their ghosts from their abode”
The aspens' whispering persists despite all other noises, and in the deserted, dark village, it seems to summon the spirits of the past.
Highlights the contrast between the living trees and the abandoned human spaces.
“Whatever wind blows, while they and I have leaves We cannot other than an aspen be That ceaselessly, unreasonably grieves, Or so men think who like a different tree.”
No matter the circumstances, as long as we live, we are bound to our nature of constant, seemingly irrational sorrow—or at least that is how others perceive us.
Connects the speaker's identity to the aspen's perpetual grieving.