Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Bonsai" by Jane Hirshfield delves into the intricate relationship between the body, the mind, and the natural world. In a few carefully crafted lines, Hirshfield engages with complex themes like abandonment, longing, and the ephemeral nature of thoughts. The poem reflects Hirshfield's characteristic approach to capturing profound observations through the everyday and the natural.

The poem begins with a morning of acute awareness, where the speaker starts "to notice which thoughts pull the spirit out of the body, which return it." Here, the speaker acknowledges the power of thoughts to either disconnect us from our physical existence or to anchor us firmly within it. This sets the stage for the exploration of different emotional states that are inherently transient but have a lasting impact on our physical and mental wellbeing.

The imagery of "a bonsai maple surrounded by her dropped leaves" serves as a poignant metaphor for a body left behind by a wandering mind or spirit. Just as a bonsai is a miniature, cultivated version of a tree, the abandoned body becomes a reduced version of the self, yearning for its missing spirit. The word "keens" introduces a sense of mourning and loss, as though the body grieves its temporary emptiness.

The second half of the poem presents a kind of redemption through connection with the external world. "Rain or objects call the forgotten back," says the speaker, indicating that simple sensory experiences can anchor us back into our physicality. The mention of "the droplets' placid girth and weight" and "the dresser's lack of ambition" encapsulate these grounding experiences. They serve as touchstones that draw us back into the material world, filling the emptiness left behind by our stray thoughts or evaporated longings.

The poem closes with a note of optimism: "How strange it is that longing, too, becomes a small green bud, thickening the vacant branch-length in early March." Longing, which initially appears to be a force that empties the body or spirit, ultimately proves to be a catalyst for renewal. The "small green bud" symbolizes the transformational power of longing, turning emptiness into a promise of new growth.

In "Bonsai," Hirshfield deftly captures the tension between the physical and the ethereal. Her language is spare but laden with meaning, and her observations about the human condition are expressed through striking natural imagery. As in many of her poems, Hirshfield finds the profound in the simple, offering deep insights into the complexities of existence. "Bonsai" is not merely a meditation on the transient nature of thoughts and emotions but an affirmation of the resilience and renewal that define both the human spirit and the natural world.

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...