Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What's the connection between trees and relationships? How does Ashbery use "some trees" as an extended metaphor?
- Why is "speech a still performance" and how does it relate to the beginning of a relationship?
- How does all the parallelism and overall form make up for the lack of meaning we get in the poem?
- What are the trees trying to tell the speaker? Does the speaker seem to learn anything by the end of the poem?
- How can "silence" be already "filled with noises?" What's Ashbery getting at with these sorts of images?