The Black Walnut Tree Analysis

"The Black Walnut Tree" is a contention between the strict and non-literal, the down to earth and wistful. In an obvious actuality, verging on contemptuous tone, the mother and daughter discuss cutting downed selling the tree to pay off their home loan. In any case, with a move to more metaphorical dialect comes a change to a more typical perspective of the black walnut tree: it is an image of their family legacy and father's work, and however the home loan measures overwhelming, chopping down the tree would be a kind of dishonorable double-crossing. "The Black Walnut Tree" is composed in free verse and clear, open vocabulary, which is most purported toward the starting: “My mother and I debate: we could sell / the black walnut tree /to the lumberman / and pay off the mortgage.” It is stated casually and the symbolic meaning the tree had later in the poem is currently unknown or, more likely, suppressed. The two women attempt to justify their plan, claiming “likely some storm anyway / will churn down its dark boughs / smashing the house.” In addition, roots are creeping onto the cellar, and the crop of walnuts is growing increasingly large. Their tore, however though slightly reluctant and grasping for justification is practical and logical. Be that as it may, …show more content…
The tree is said to “[swing] through another year / of sun and leaping winds / of leaving and bounding fruits,” a moving portrayal of bliss and abundance. This hopeful tore is instantly differentiated against the last lines: “and, month after month, the whip- / crack of the mortgage.” The tore and implications are presently brutal, “whip-crack,” stresses by its split more than two lines, rings pictures of subjugation, abuse, and agony, demonstrating the penance the speaker and her mom took to safeguard their legacy as opposed to grabbing monetary