"And the tree danced. No.
The tree capitalized.
No. There are limits to saying,
In language, what the tree did."
It is very obvious that Robert Hass, the writer of this poem, finds it difficult to write what he saw from the tree's action in reality. He doesn't see how he could possibly describe the tree in a significant way. He says the tree danced and right away I see a trees branches swaying in the wind, slightly melodically, with a certain rhythm to it. But right away Hass takes it back and replaces danced with capitalized. This is so strange to me. Why would he use capitalized to describe the tree? Is the tree risking something to gain an advantage? Is the wind causing the tree to risk it's life because it is so windy that the tree could fall down or lose branches? Maybe that's it, and maybe the positive thing that the tree gained was the beauty of it's leaves glistening in the sun because of the wind. But no, it doesn't make sense because it doesn't justify what the tree is doing and that's his point exactly.
I had to analyze the same poem, but I find your response so much more informative then mine! I really didn't even look at the shift from the tree "dancing" to the tree "capitalizing." This response made me take another look at the purpose and meaning of the poem.
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