Analysis of Laura Kasischke's "Mushrooms"

Mushrooms

BY LAURA KASISCHKE

Like silent naked monks huddled

around an old tree stump, having

spun themselves in the night

out of thought and nothingness—

And God so pleased with their silence

He grants them teeth and tongues.

Like us.

How long have you been gone?

A child’s hot tears on my bare arms.

Source- http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/241556

The first stanza talks about a bunch of mushrooms huddled around an old tree stump and compares their silent growth and sprouting(spun) at that night itself out of thought and nothingness to that of the monks, calm and peaceful; thus personifying the mushrooms.

But why does the poetess sees them as huddled rather than just growing or sprouting? People huddle around things that have some importance. This scene of mushrooms silently growing around a tree stump at night seems quite a sad picture. Imagine those poor small beings in cold and dark. May be they have gathered to mourn over the death of the tree, or waiting for it to grow back despite knowing it won’t.  May be this personification has some meaning in the bigger picture of the poem.

In the second stanza then, god is so pleased with their silence that he grants them teeth and tongue, which could be inferred as a symbolical reference to either power of speech or taste. So is it the mushrooms that get the ability of speech or taste? Perhaps that’s their gift for waiting silently so that they would be able to talk about it amongst themselves. Or maybe the picture of mushrooms gathered around a tree stump gets blessed to be powerful enough to signify something sad, to speak for itself, like a funeral when one doesn’t needs to explain his silence or tears. It might be the scene, here, that gets the metaphorical teeth and tongue.

“Like us” says the third stanza consisting only two words, spilling the beans, that the whole scene of mushrooms standing around a tree stump like monks and god blessing them with teeth and tongue was referring to what is mentioned in the last stanza where a child’s hot tears fall on the poetess’s hand.

The dialogue in the last stanza: “How long have you been gone?” clearly indicates, after the gloomy picture in the previous stanzas, that it’s a poem about mourning. The poetess and the child, probably siblings, seem to be grieving about the loss of someone, standing silently like the mushrooms mourning for the cut tree. There’s a story here. The child, most probably the poetess’s sibling, is sad about the death of someone they were close to, maybe their parents. And the child, out of the two, breaks in to tears recollecting their beloved dead. It’s the tears in this case that get blessed with the metaphorical teeth and tongue, strong enough to speak for themselves, asking the one they have been mourning for-“How long have you been gone?”, or as if saying, “It’s been so long since you have gone.”
Coming to the scene imagery, its night and they are standing close to each other, perhaps hugging or the poetess is carrying him on her arms and that’s how his tears fall on her arms.

Conclusion- The child had been mourning silently like the mushrooms huddled around an old tree stump and then comes a simile that seems like a disappointed sarcasm: god is so pleased with their silence that he granted him teeth and tongue but not what they had been mourning for. The tears of the child get blessed to be able to speak for themselves; to be able to explain, what he is sad about, without any literal words; like the sad picture of small mushrooms gathered around a tree stump in cold and dark and not requiring an explanation.

Analysis of John Ashbery's "Some Trees"

SOME TREES

John Ashbery

---

These are amazing: each
Joining a neighbor, as though speech
Were a still performance.
Arranging by chance

To meet as far this morning
From the world as agreeing
With it, you and I
Are suddenly what the trees try

To tell us we are:
That their merely being there
Means something; that soon
We may touch, love, explain.

And glad not to have invented
Such comeliness, we are surrounded:
A silence already filled with noises,
A canvas on which emerges

A chorus of smiles, a winter morning.
Placed in a puzzling light, and moving,
Our days put on such reticence
These accents seem their own defense.

Source-http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/some-trees.html

Some Trees- The word “Some” in the title could have two implications, one being- they are some random trees, and the other- they are some specific or special trees.

“These” refers to some specific trees the poet can see or imagine as he writes. Think of a fruit vendor selling the fruits displayed before him- “These fruits are amazing.” The title was referring to some specific trees.

The colon after the statement: “These are amazing”, describes the reason why the poet thinks they are amazing, which is- “Each joining a neighbor, as though speech were a still performance.”

How does the act of speech and joining relate? This is not a physical connection the poet is talking about but an emotional one. So, these trees connect to their neighbor as if communicating is a still performance which is not the case as conversation involves hand gestures and/or facial expressions too.  They are just standing beside one another, without talking, but still joining each other at an emotional level. But there’s a comma after the first statement: “each joining a neighbor, as….” The statement apart from connecting to the next through a simile: as, is also an independent one in itself. Perhaps they are connecting physically as well as emotionally.

Also, the line enjambment on “each” could mean that the poet stresses on the idea that each of these trees are equally unique.

The inclusion of the line “arranging by chance” in the first stanza could make the reader think at first that it’s the trees that are arranging something, but as we read further we realize it’s the poet and his muse for this poem, someone he loves, who are arranging for a meeting. This sudden shift from describing some trees to his love life could mean he intends to compare himself and his love to that of the trees growing next to each other.

“Arranging by chance…” , the author and his love have decided to meet at a place without telling each other about it. May be they know their schedules and where they would be at what time of the day and decide to run in to each other making it look like co-incidence. It could be about a teenage attraction and juvenile things teens do. And as he further writes we realize they have decided to meet on a morning, but where? “….as far this morning from the world as agreeing with it…” Their meeting is not fixed at a particular spot but at a place which will be as far from the world as they agree (or disagree) with the world. Perhaps he is comparing the idea of arranging co-incidental meetings to that of the branches of the trees swaying in the wind and meeting each other at an undefined point and making it look as if it was the wind (co-incidence) that caused them to meet and not their intentions.

With The second stanza ending with: “you and I are suddenly what the trees try...” it becomes quite clear that the poet is comparing his love life to that of the trees growing next to each other.

The idea that the trees connect to each other without talking and their branches touching each other can be compared to a story the poet is trying to tell here: He might be standing somewhere under or near “Some Trees” waiting for a co-incidental meet up with his love and he realizes how much they are like these trees or the what the trees are trying to tell him about them, 

which is- Their merely being there means something . 

The mere presence of the poet and his love next to each other, like the trees, means something. It was meant to be, it was as destined as the presence of the trees that grew next to each other without their will or knowledge.  At this point it seems this is not a poem about teenage attraction, it’s about true love.

And soon, like the trees growing their branches amid each other’s, the author and his love will also touch, fall in love and explain their love to each other.

In the last two stanzas, he is glad not to have made a scene out of this whole affair which could have attracted attention. He wants to be left alone with his love but they are already surrounded: With a silence filled with questions to be asked and love to be expressed- the noises, with the smile lit face of his love on the canvas(vision) of his eyes, and all that under the light falling from between the rustling leaves of some trees- a moving light. With his love expressed and accepted, their days become introverted and away from people. These accents: the seclusion from people, the chorus of smiles; seem to be defending themselves, explaining on their own, to the people, about his relationship, without him having to say anything.