The poem is in copyright, so this list explains words useful for discussing it, including a few from the specimen questions.
4.1 Word bank
| Word / phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| hunker down | crouch low, as if to shelter |
| lumber | move heavily and clumsily |
| recoil | shrink back in fear or shock |
| silence | stillness, absence of sound |
| shock | a sudden upsetting experience |
| numbness | inability to feel |
| clarity | clearness |
| hurtful | painful |
| unsaid | not spoken |
| regret | sorrow over something done or not done |
| remorse | deep regret |
| reality | the world as one knows it |
| disoriented | confused, having lost one's sense of direction |
| void | an empty space |
| despair | complete loss of hope |
| caves | hollows in rock — here, darkness and isolation |
| peace | calm, freedom from distress |
| irregularly | unevenly, not at a steady pace |
| soothing | calming, comforting |
| restored | brought back |
| inspire | fill with the urge to do something good |
| elegy | a poem of mourning for the dead |
| metaphor | a direct comparison without "like" or "as" |
| free verse | poetry without regular rhyme or metre |
4.2 Key phrases (as used in the specimen questions)
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| great trees | (metaphor) great souls |
| small things recoil into silence | small creatures shrink back, stunned and silent |
| kind words unsaid | loving things we meant to say but never did |
| dark, cold caves | a state of lonely confusion and despair |
| Be and be better. For they existed. | Because they lived, we can live, and live better. |
4.3 Devices
| Device | Example in the poem |
|---|---|
| extended metaphor | great trees standing for great souls throughout the poem |
| imagery | the animals' reactions to the falling tree |
| personification | the landscape seeming to react to the fall; memory troubling us |
| metaphor | "dark, cold caves" for despair; peace growing like a flower |
| repetition | "When great trees fall" / "great souls die"; "They existed" |
| contrast | darkness and shock at first; peace and hope at the end |
4.4 Form and structure
| Feature | In the poem |
|---|---|
| form | free verse — no regular rhyme or metre |
| stanzas | five, of varying length |
| line length | many short lines, giving a slow, halting rhythm like grief |
| structure | stanzas 1–2: nature; stanzas 3–4: the human loss; stanza 5: healing |
| movement | from shock and darkness to peace and hope |