The Black Walnut Tree By Mary Oliver Essay

The Black Walnut Tree written by Mary Oliver conveyed the relationship between the tree and family throughout the poem through the use of figurative language and other poetic techniques such as the author's choice of diction and syntax or sentence structure. The poem explains the difficulty as a family struggles financially without the father present and the choice of whether or not they should sell the large Black Walnut Tree that the father planted in the backyard.

Throughout the poem, Mary Oliver utilized figurative language to portray the relationship between the tree and family. They used imagery, personification, and metaphors throughout to strengthen the poem's meaning. The poem states “something brighter than money.” This is a metaphor that explains the significance of the tree in the family's mind. Money is

The choice of diction portrays the guilt that the daughter and mother feel because they are thinking of cutting down the tree for money. Mary Oliver uses words such as "shame", "emptiness" and "difficult". These give off the feeling of regret for thinking about money instead of how their father would feel. Without the use of diction such as these throughout the poem, the author could not have swayed the audience to believe the daughter and mother felt regretful during their time of struggle. The syntax of the poem combined with the choice of diction aids the poem's message. The sentences are really long and are broken up. There is a slight use of enjambment throughout, as the sentences show the running thoughts of the mother and daughter. There is only one stanza throughout the poem as well showing the thought process behind the family’s decision. At the beginning of the poem they came up with reasons why they cut it down for money, then towards the middle they began reflecting on the tree and their father and finally at the end they were regretful and guilty and let the tree grow