Of Trees and the Tree (and George Herbert)

Of Trees and the Tree (and George Herbert)

Our neighborhood HOA is chopping down trees today. These are decades-old, very-tall, healthy pine trees that, from what we’ve been told, pre-date the housing development they’re now a part of. Earlier this spring, my family was rudely surprised and shaken to find that a tree removal crew had arrived to cut down all four of the evergreen trees that flanked our home (an end-unit condo). (Tree “removal” is such a euphemism for what actually happens in the hacking off of healthy limbs and then slicing down of tall tree trunks until nothing is left but a stump. “Butchery” is a more accurate term.) These pine trees had shaded our house from the hot Southern California sun and provided greenery in our window views that added layers and color to views of pavement, stucco housing, and harsh sunshine.

 

Why the HOA decided (without letting residents know) that they were going to cut down the trees is another matter (pine cones dropping on cars was the answer I received). I knew I loved and was thankful for these trees. But I didn’t know how much I truly valued those trees until they were gone and we were left with nothing but stumps. No shade, no green boughs to see out of second-story windows. Stumps. When the crews showed up today to chop down more healthy, verdant pine trees in our sun-drenched area (see photo of the trees prior to execution), I knew I had to leave my neighborhood for the day.

And I thought of George Herbert.

 

I think Herbert loved trees. I’m speculating, of course, but several of his English poems use a metaphor or analogy of humans as trees. My favorite can be found in his poem “Affliction (1),” which I’ve written about on my blog before: http://readingtheoldbooks.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-limits-of-book-learning-gh-day-17.html. It’s actually a moment of frustration where the speaker wishes he were a tree, because at least that would give him a useful purpose and occupation:

 

I read, and sigh, and wish I were a tree,—

          For sure then I should grow

To fruit or shade; at least some bird would trust

Her household to me, and I should be just. (“Affliction (1)” lines 57-60)

 

Then there’s “Employment (2)” where Herbert’s speaker proclaims,

 

Oh that I were an Orange-tree, 

                             That busie plant!

Then should I ever laden be,

                             And never want

Some fruit for him that dressed me. (lines 21-25)*

 

Herbert once again refers to the trees as a home for birds in “Miserie”:

 

The bird that sees a daintie bowre

Made in the tree, where she was wont to sit,

        Wonders and sings, but not his power

Who made the arbour: this exceeds her wit. (lines 55-58)**

 

I wonder if in dwelling on the trees’ purpose as homes for birds, Herbert is remembering Jesus’s words in the Gospels. In Luke 13:18-19 (or parallel passage in Matthew 13:32), Jesus says, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches” (ESV).

 

I think God loves trees. They are after all His creation (and He called them “good” [Genesis 1:12]).

 

We no doubt recall that the analogy of humans compared to growing trees is found several places in Scripture. Psalm 1 comes to mind.*** Believers are to be growing and flourishing like a healthy tree, producing fruit. In fact, Herbert’s entire poem “Paradise” is based around this metaphor: “I bless thee, Lord, because I GROW / Among thy trees, which in a ROW / To thee both fruit and order OW” (lines 1-3).

 

But another association we have with trees—or, in particular, a tree--is Herbert’s second most-common reference in his English poems, and that is to THE tree, the one on which Jesus died.

 

In “Unkindness” Herbert writes, “My God upon a tree / His bloud did spill” (lines 22-23), while in “Longing” he pictures how, “Lord Jesu, thou didst bow / Thy dying head upon the tree” (lines 31-32).

 

Then, in “Sacrifice,” Herbert writes from the perspective of Christ on the cross:

O all ye who passe by, behold and see;

Man stole the fruit, but I must climbe the tree;

The tree of life to all, but onely me:

                                              Was ever grief like mine? (lines 201-4)

This specific tree, the cross, has an exalted place in Christian history and English literature, from the Old English poem The Dream of the Rood (which means “dream of the cross”) to these Renaissance-era poems of George Herbert and beyond.****

  

Perhaps we Christians need a slightly higher view of trees. I am certainly not arguing for a complete upending the Great Chain of Being, that of animal being higher than vegetable which is higher than mineral. But at least we need to recognize and appreciate trees’ beauty, their shade, and the homes they provide for birds and other animals—and especially to be thankful to God for creating them. It’s purely coincidence that Arbor Day is this month (April). My husband and I have been trying to nurture the little seedlings that are the “children” of the beautiful pine tree that was chopped down in front of our home.

 

Herbert’s poem “Providence” celebrates how God’s providence is at work in the natural world and especially under the stewardship of humans. In “Providence” Herbert imagines how trees could be “tuning on their native lute” to praise God (lines 10-11), but they have not been given the gifts (of reason and speech) that humans have to praise God. Humans are to praise God on behalf of all creation, says Herbert (lines 13-20).

 

No offense to Herbert (or to humans), but I wouldn’t mind hearing the trees make their own music to praise God (“tuning on their native lute(s)”). Indeed, in his poem “Easter,” Herbert writes that the cross, that one special tree, “taught all wood to resound his name” (line 9). Because of that one tree, says Herbert, all trees, all wood in fact, resounds the name of our Savior.

 

Scripture abounds with images of Creation, including trees, praising God. Even as I mourn the loss of my own trees, I look forward to enjoying praise to God from His Creation in His perfect kingdom, as anticipated in Isaiah 44:23b (ESV):

  

break forth into singing, O mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
For the LORD has redeemed Jacob,
and will be glorified in Israel.

 

California Redwoods (thankfully protected!)

 

Notes

 

* Another example is the poem “Man,” where Herbert declares that “Man is ev’ry thing

And more: He is a tree, yet bears no fruit” (lines 7-8).

 

** The idea here that birds (or beasts or other parts of Creation) don’t have the knowledge or ability to praise God in the way that humans do is one that Herbert develops more fully in his poem “Providence.”

 

*** Herbert may have written a poetic paraphrase of Psalm 1. F.E. Hutchinson includes a paraphrase of Psalm 1 in his Works of George Herbert under the heading “Doubtful Poems.”

 

**** In The Dream of the Rood, the tree tells its story of having been “felled from the forest’s edge,” made into the cross that a heroic Christ mounts, buried and raised like Christ, and ultimately exalted, “honored [by God] over all the trees of the forest.” Throughout the poem, the tree is given such monikers as the “victory-tree” and the “tree of glory.” (Translation from R.M. Liuzza, Old English Poetry: An Anthology)