Planting a Sequoia1

All afternoon my brothers and I have worked in the orchard,

Digging this hole, laying you into it, carefully packing the soil.
Rain blackened the horizon, but cold winds kept it over the Pacific,
And the sky above us stayed the dull gray
Of an old year coming to an end.
In Sicily a father plants a tree to celebrate his first son's birth An olive or a fig tree - a sign that the earth has one more life to bear.
I would have done the same, proudly laying new stock into my father's orchard,
A green sapling rising among the twisted apple boughs,
A promise of new fruit in other autumns.
But today we kneel in the cold planting you, our native giant,
Defying the practical custom of our fathers,
Wrapping in your roots a lock of hair, a piece of an infant's birth cord,
All that remains above earth of a first-born son,
A few stray atoms brought back to the elements.
We will give you what we can - our labor and our soil,
Water drawn from the earth when the skies fail,
Nights scented with the ocean fog, days softened by the circuit of bees.
We plant you in the corner of the grove, bathed in western light,
A slender shoot against the sunset.
And when our family is no more, all of his unborn brothers dead,
Every niece and nephew scattered, the house torn down,
His mother's beauty ashes in the air,
I want you to stand among strangers, all young and ephemeral to you,
Silently keeping the secret of your birth.
Dana Gioia

a huge coniferous tree in California, often known as a giant redwood

Commentary: The unity of man and nature

The cycle of life requires both human and nature's input. A tree cannot grow even with the help
of the Earth's natural resources, water and light, without man initially planting the seed. The
poem "Planting a Sequoia" written by Dana Gioia unites man and nature. The death of a man
becomes the birth of tree.
Creating a grave and planting a tree requires the same action, digging a hole. The first stanza of
the poem introduces a person, the narrator, digging hole, laying you into it, carefully packing
the soil. This refers to both planting a tree, and burying a man. The weather is dark and cold
which introduces a sad and harsh tone to the poem. The narrator than continues describes a
tradition in Sicily, where planting of a tree represents the birth of a child, because the earth has
"one more life to bear". The narrator claims that he would have followed this tradition. However
instead he is in the cold on his knees planting the sequoia, the native tree of California. With the
tree he plants a lock of hair and an infant's umbilical cord. Only now in the middle of the poem
does the narrator express that he is burying his son and reconnecting him with the elements of
nature. After the planting of the reader is told how nature and man will work together to raise this
tree. The men will give labour and soil while nature provides water and light. This tree will live
longer than any of the family members and forever "stand among strangers".
Unlike the life of a tree, human life is not forever. However, through the simple act of planting a
tree a person's life is forever remembered. A father is burying his first-born son. By burying hair
and the umbilical cord with the tree, the tree becomes the son. This unification of man and nature
becomes the pattern and running theme through the poem. The unification is presented through
personification. The literal meaning of the poem, the tree, is referred to throughout the poem as
"you". This creates a human connotation and establishes a personal relationship between the
figurative you, represented in the tree, and the speaker. This supports the idea of a father burying
his son.
Death is natural. Throughout this poem the natural theme is supported through natural imagery,
"Rain blackened the horizon", "Nights scented with the ocean fog", and "days softened by the
circuit of bees". However, a father burying his son is unnatural. Unnatural imagery, like "We
plant you in the corner of the grave", "Digging this hole", "packing the soil" and "We will give
you ... Water drawn from the earth when the skies fail" supports the unnatural tragic event of a
child dying before his father. The death of a child is the reason the father is "Defying the
practical custom of our fathers". He is going against tradition like nature has gone against the
tradition of a father dying before his son.
The pain, sadness, and grief for the tragic death of a son is represented within the imagery of the
first stanza in the poem. The dark and cold weather sets a gloomy tone to the poem. This creates
an expectation within the reader for a dark and sad poem. This expectation is supported by the
alliteration of the harsh "k" sound. This is an unpleasant sound which provokes feelings of pain
and hurt. However within the first sentence a reference to "orchard" is made. Orchard has the
connotation of beauty, life and growth. Towards the end of the first stanza there is the
foreshadowing of rain; however the "cold winds kept it over the Pacific, and the sky above us
stayed the dull gray". There was a natural force which kept the rain away. The tree is the natural

force which reduces the mourning for the death of the child. The mourning and tragic grief is
replaced by the tree, which represent life, beauty and growth like the orchard. There is a sense of
hope as well as sadness which rises within the poem from the first stanza.
Birth, "A promise of new fruit in other autumns", also provides a sense of hope in life. Therefore
within the poem an allusion to another culture and tradition is made. This comparison shows how
a tradition which creates hope for a joyful event has been used to change grief into hope and a
celebration of life, not to those who are new to life but for those who will be remembered for
their life and have died. The difference between the boy who has died and the newborn baby is
symbolized through the use of different trees. The dead boy is represented as a giant native
sequoia. This tree represents age, experience, strength, development and beauty, all the aspects
which a "green sapling" or "apple boughs" still need to develop just like newborn babies.
While the "native giant" sequoia stands tall and strong, the rest of the family is going to be
scattered in the air when they die. The tree will forever be
a representation of the dead son. This death was the reason the tree was born. However the last
line of the poem, "Silently keeping the secret of your birth", indicates that the reason for the tree
and the actual planting of the sequoia was the intimate and private moment for the father in order
to be at peace with the death of his son. Therefore it was a secret and shall remain a secret. The
quiet alliteration of the sound "s" provides a sense of calmness which closes the poem with a
tone and mood of serenity and rest. The secret of the birth of the tree will always remain between
the father and the tree. Therefore the relationship between father and son will remain forever.
Not only does the poem show a relationship between nature and man but also between father and
son. This is evident through the structure of the poem. The lack of rhythm and rhyme presents
the poem as a private monologue from a father to his son. The reader is invited to listen and
experience the unification of a man and nature as well as the everlasting tie between father and
son.
The father created a way to have the memory of his son live on forever. By planting a tree man
and nature worked together to create life. Through the use of natural and unnatural imagery,
personification, diction and symbolism man and nature were unified within this poem. Either
through having a symbolic tree, being buried or scattered everyone unifies with nature after
death. This is the natural cycle of life.

Examiners comments:
This commentary contains examples of two common faults. The first is a tendency for students to start
writing before they have really understood the poem, but then to gradually arrive at a better interpretation
as they write. The second is to make an overall interpretation and then to maintain it without further
questioning. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that this literary analysis contains a mixture of perceptive and
slightly off-beat interpretations.
The first sentence is not promising. Is it even true? Trees grew long before human beings arrived on earth.
Is it relevant to the poet's message? Only to a certain extent. Also, the poem is about the death of a child,
not a man.
The second paragraph, however, gives a satisfactory outline of what happens in the poem, while the third
paragraph discusses the ambiguity of "We will give you what we can" where the "you" is both the child
and the tree.
There is some confusion between the meanings of "natural", "unnatural" and "nature", and the examples
of unnatural imagery are not explained convincingly. It is not unnatural to dig a hole except in this
particular situation. It is against tradition to plant a tree for a dead child, just as it is against tradition and
nature for a child to die before his father; but can these events be called unnatural or just unusual?
In writing about this, the student misquotes "grove" as "grave" in paragraph 4.
The discussion of the effects of the weather on the tone is valid, as is the significance of the use of the
sequoia to represent the dead child. Unfortunately, the language and syntax used in paragraphs 5 and 6
tends to obscure rather than clarify what the student is trying to say. The next paragraph, beginning
"While the 'native giant' sequoia ... ", is very good as the student shows that he has grasped the central
idea of the poem. It is a pity that at the end, the commentary reverts to the earlier idea of the poem being
about the unification of man and nature. This is a patchy performance which is sometimes marred by
faulty and confusing writing.