Birches

The eponymous birch trees in Frost’s “Birches” symbolize the connection between the earthly realm and heaven and offer access to both worlds. The trees are rooted to the ground but allow the speaker to carefully climb up them, “[t]oward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, / But dipped its top and set me down again” (Lines 56-57). The birches are flexible and resilient. Even in an ice-storm, they are “dragged to the withered bracken by the load, / And they seem not to break” (Lines 14-15). Like the speaker who experiences the pain and suffering of adult life, the birches also show the marks of the storm: “though once they are bowed / So low for long, they never right themselves” (Lines 15-16). While they are physically altered by their experiences, they still survive and still demonstrate beauty even in later years, becoming like young girls drying their hair in the sun.

The speaker, and his projection of the boy, form a symbiotic relationship with the birches, climbing the trees respectfully and carefully; the birches provide the balance the speaker needs to live his life dynamically and joyfully.