Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?
- Well, it looks like we're in for some more botany in this stanza. Our speaker has moved on from roses to trees.
- Specifically, he's asking us (remember the "Tell me" command from line 1?) why "trees conceal/ the splendor of their roots." Okay… we're not seeing too many hands up out there, so let's dive deeper to see what we can make of this.
- This question seems to have a few things in common with the first one. In addition to being about a plant, it's also about what gets hidden and what's revealed. In stanza 1 the personified rose was (possibly) hiding herself under a dress. In this case, the trees are also personified as hiding something: their roots.
- Now, any amateur scientist out there knows that most trees get water and nutrients from the soil, and it's pretty hard to get stuff form the soil if you don't have roots that hang out there to collect it all. (You can test this out if you like, Shmoopers. Just go over to your neighbor's house one night and yank that maple right out of their lawn to see how long it survives. Just, you know, don't tell them it was our idea.)
- Once again, though, we don't think this poem is really that fixated on scientific explanation. Just notice the word choice in line 4. Why does the speaker say "splendor of their roots"? We mean, have you ever looked at roots before? They look more like Phyllis Diller's hairdo than anything we'd call a "splendor." So why does the speaker dig roots so much? (No, we don't mean not those Roots—everyone digs them).
- Well, you could argue that—as the things that keep trees, you know, alive—roots are pretty swell. The fact that they can turn dirt and water into stuff that gives us something as majestic as a tree is pretty special. So maybe they should have their moment in the sun—literally.
- Of course, if you pulled roots out of the ground, then they wouldn't be able to do their work, so they would cease be as special as they are. In fact, they can only work if they stay hidden.
- Is that the trees' fault, though? The speaker sure seems to think so. If we follow his logic then (and you have to just go with him for now), trees are all show and no substance. The work that the roots produce—the trees themselves—are what we get to see above the ground. But the means of how those trees exist in the first place—the lowly root—stays hidden below the surface.
- Again, our speaker is wondering about what goes on at the unseen level, beyond the reality that we recognize. He seems to think what goes on there is pretty special.
- What's more, he's asking us to explain this whole visible-invisible dynamic to him. Any takers out there?