Greek mythology, his ability to cause trees to
walk by the power of his song.
Section 1
The poem begins with a brief introductory sec-
tion (lines 1–11). The entire poem is told from
the perspective of a first-person narrator (using
‘‘I’’). It quickly becomes apparent that the nar-
rator is a tree from its references to other trees as
its relations and its own possession of branches
and twigs. The event described in this section is
the tree’s first perception of Orpheus’s music.
The sensation is so subtle that it seems like nothing
more than a light breeze at first. It is not clearly
stated, but given the ever-increasing transforma-
tive power of Orpheus’s song throughout the
poem, it may be that this first hint of music is
what calls the tree into consciousness from a
more normal vegetative state. As the feeling inten-
sifies, it seems to the tree as if it is burning—
naturally the thing it fears most—but the sensa-
tion paradoxically does not create any fear.
Section 2
The second section includes lines 12 to 39. The
first theme in this section is the confusion between
man and tree. The tree takes on increasingly
anthropomorphic, that is, humanlike, character-
istics, as when it sees Orpheus. The tree explains
Orpheus’s physical appearance in terms of a tree
or another plant, likening the human body to a
tree trunk, the arms to branches, hair to grass,
and so on. Next the tree describes Orpheus’s lyre
(an ancient musical instrument like a small hand-
held harp, but strummed with a plectrum or pick,
like a zither, rather than plucked). Actually made
out of wood, the lyre, too, is explained with refer-
ence to the tree’s own understanding of living
creatures. The tree mistakes the strings, which
are made of animal intestines, for vines. The tree
realizes that it is with the lyre, as well as with his
voice, that Orpheus is creating his music. The
tree’s next perception, then, is of Orpheus’s sing-
ing. The tree notes that Orpheus’s voice makes
a sound of its own, as opposed to the wind,
which only speaks through the rustling of leaves.
Orpheus’s song intensifies as he approaches the
tree and eventually stands in its shadow, becom-
ing connected to the tree in this way. Now the tree
no longer experiences the song as fire, as before,
but seems to feel itself singing as much as Orpheus
is, and the music is welling up inside it, reminding
it of its sap rising or of drawing up water from the
dirt through its roots.Section 3
In the brief third section (lines 40–43), Orpheus
comes into physical contact with the tree, lean-
ing against it. The tree’s whole being is shaken
with joyous and fearful emotion.Section 4
The character of Orpheus’s song changes in the
fourth section (lines 44–62). Until now the
music, even the singing, had featured no definite
words. But now Orpheus adds lyrics to his song
(although the words are never directly quoted by
the tree). By the same creative miracle through
which the song awakened consciousness in the
tree, it now understands the language and mean-
ing of the words. The meaning enters its being as
does moisture from dew. The tree then moves on
to the content of Orpheus’s songs, which in fact
correspond to the known categories of Orphic
verse from antiquity. The first subject the tree
mentions is cosmogony, descriptions of the var-
ious parts of the universe, such as the stars and
planets, and how they behave and came to be.
The next allusion is to a prophecy of Orpheus’s
journey to the underworld to bring his wife,
Eurydice, back to the land of the living. The
last topics are war and human emotions, the
subjects of epics. These lines refer to Orpheus’s
role as a crewman of theArgo(on the voyage to
Colchis, in which the hero, Jason, stole the
golden fleece and married the witch Medea),
the subject of more than one Greek epic poem.MEDIA
ADAPTATIONS The Australian composer David Lumsdaine
has arranged ‘‘A Tree Telling of Orpheus’’
for soprano and chamber ensemble. The
score was published in 2003, and a commer-
cial recording is scheduled to be released in
2009 or 2010.ATreeTellingofOrpheus