It seam that the speaker is explaining the life of a boy through his adventures with the outside world, specifically birch trees. In the first lines the speaker shows his attentiveness towards the birch tree. He watches the birch trees “bend to left and right.” The speaker examines the trees so closely because the tree must be conquered in order to achieve adulthood. Line 2: He watches them bend “across the lines of straighter darker trees,” Across the lines means difference between things that are easy to achieve because the speaker is familiar with them and things that are difficult to achieve because it may be unfamiliar. The speaker uses the phrase “I like to think” in line three because he would rather have the trees be bent by a boy rather than the ice storms. The speaker acknowledges that the birches bend due to the weather rather then a boys weight. From lines 11- 23 the speaker seems to go on a metaphorical journey of truth and reality. The speaker describes the image of the sun warming the birches and making them shed their ice crystals. This may refer to the …show more content…
The boys call to adventure could be his climb to adulthood. Within his climb he refuses his call. The speaker would like to refuse the responsibilities of adulthood as he describes when he says “And so I dream of going back to be.” he dreams of going back because “life is too much like a pathless wood.” The speaker admits that he wishes he could pass the threshold when he says “I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree” he elaborates on this more when he says “[I’d] climb lack branches up to a snow-white trunk toward heaven till the tree could bare no more.” The speaker only wants to dip into heaven because he realizes earth is the right place for