Robert M. Bird "The Beech-Tree" (1834)

Robert M. Bird, “The Beech-Tree” (1834)
Heidi Baker, American Literature I, Spring 2007, The University of Akron

Introduction

As Terence Martin notes, Robert Montgomery Bird was born in 1806 in Delaware. His father, John Bird, died in 1810 and after living with his uncle, Nicholas Van Dyke, Bird moved to Philadelphia with his mother, Elizabeth Van Leuvenigh (Martin). According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Online article, Bird graduated in 1827 from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in medicine, and he only practiced for a year.
After he stopped practicing medicine, Bird became very interested in writing poetry and plays (“Bird”). Between 1830 and 1833, he wrote four tragedies (Martin). Bird then began to write novels about experiences he had while traveling; his most famous novel being Nick of the Woods, written in 1837 (“Bird”). Also in 1837, Bird married Mary Mayer, (they had just one child together) and became the editor of the American Monthly Magazine in Philadelphia (Martin). In this decade Bird became acquainted with writers Richard Henry Dana, Sr., and William Gilmore Simms; then Edgar Allan Poe heard about Bird, and asked him to write an article for the Southern Literary Messenger (Martin).
In 1854, Bird died of a brain tumor and was laid to rest in the Laurel Hill Cemetery (Martin).

The following poem may be set somewhere near Fairmount Park in Pennsylvania. According an article on the ushistory.org page, Laurel Hill Cemetery is a “geographical extension” of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia; it overlooks the Schuykill River (“Laurel”). The park occupies a good chunk of land along the Schuykill River, the river mentioned in Bird’s “The Beech-Tree.” It could be possible that the hill mentioned in Bird’s poem is the Laurel Hill area. The Laurel Hill Cemetery was planned in 1835 by John Notman (“Laurel”).It is said that “in the last century Laurel Hill Cemetery was a place to promenade on a Sunday afternoon or a holiday” (“Laurel”).
         The place was designed not only as a burial place, but a place where the living could go and enjoy the beauty of nature (“History”). Considering the fact that Bird was buried there after his death, it is highly likely he spent time there during his life. Many people went to Laurel Hill in its early days for leisure time; taking part in picnics, walks, and sight-seeing (“History”). Laurel Hill was at first visited by steamboat, “Steamboats Washington, Mount Vernon and Frederick Graff embarked hourly on a circuit between Fairmount and the Falls of Schuylkill, emptying a stream of lot-holders and sightseers at Laurel Hill” (“History”). The Falls of the Schuykill could very well be the “hum of the waterfall” mentioned in Bird’s poem.
         The Fairmount Park area is known for its tree groves and the old estates that were acquired to be part of the park (“Fairmount”). ”). The Fairmount Park/ Laurel Hill area is known for its many trees and the nature surrounding the Schuykill. It would not be surprising for Bird to choose this area to write a poem about a tree.
         
         In the “Beech-Tree,” there is what might be a carefully created ambiguity about the “maiden”- is she his current love, or is she a former love? This ambiguity appears in the tense, the tone, and the diction.
         Throughout the poem we read about moments the speaker has had with the maiden, but these experiences are all in the past tense. Is this because the speaker is no longer with his love? Did she die? Or is the speaker still with his love, but they no longer go to the Beech-Tree? We are introduced to the maiden; the speaker is remembering their times at the tree:
Here’s the rock that she sat on, the spray that she held,
When she bent round its gray trunk with me;
And smiled, as with soft, timid eyes, she beheld
The name I had carved on the tree
(Bird).
The other parts of the poem are in present tense. There is a lot of ambiguity in the past tense referencing of the maiden.
         The tone of the poem is ambiguous, because it is nostalgic; but it this melancholy, or are the memories fond? Part of the poem says:
How sweet, at that moment, to steal through the grove,
In the shade of that beech to recline,
And dream of the maiden who gave it her love,
And left it thus hallow’d in mine
(Bird)
This is repeated later, but instead of the word “sweet,” Bird uses the word “dear.” These seem to have a happy meaning, but they could represent happy times the speaker desperately longs to have again. It is difficult to know whether he has been heartbroken, or if they are still in love.
         The binary oppositions of day and night, and the allusion to the changing of the seasons, create a structural contradiction. In the first part of the poem, sunset and nighttime are eluded to: “In a nook that is lovely when sunshine departs,/ And twilight creeps over the tide” (Bird). There is opposition; nighttime is usually associated with darkness and negativity, but the word “lovely” is used to describe the speaker’s hiding place. Later in the poem, morning is mentioned: “The singing-thrush moans on that beech-tree at morn” (Bird). There is opposition in the use of the word “moans.” This word generally implies pain, but morning stereotypically has a positive connotation. Night and day are mentioned more than once throughout the poem. There is a noticeable binary relationship between the seasons. Towards the beginning, the maiden is holding a “spray,” which implies the season is spring or summer. The end of the poem takes a turn towards autumn and winter:
And oh, when the shadows creep out from the wood,
When the breeze stirs no more on the spray,
And the sunbeam of autumn, that plays on the flood,
Is melting, each moment, away
(Bird)
If the reader assumes these are a metaphor to the speaker’s relationship with the maiden, they might assume the speaker and the maiden were once happy, but are no longer in love. But the poem ends where the speaker mentions dreaming of the maiden. Did the speaker lose the maiden’s love? The binary oppositions seem to mirror the ambiguity of love or lost love.
         The possibilities of what occurred between the speaker and the maiden are endless. There is one thing, however; that does not seem ambiguous. The feelings the speaker has towards the maiden are those of love. He never speaks ill of her, and he has happy memories of the two of them together. We can gather that at some point this love was reciprocated, but whether or not it still is, the speaker definitely loves the maiden.

Note on the text

This edition is based on Robert M. Bird, “The Beech-Tree” New-York Mirror Vol. XI No. 39 (March 1834) 304. I have not changed much of the punctuation or spelling of this poem, because there is nothing terribly distracting. I made three slight punctuation corrections, dealing with colons and semicolons, but these corrections are basically unnoticeable.

Copied Text

There’s a hill by the Schuykill, the river of hearts,
And a beech-tree that grows on its side,
In a nook that is lovely when sunshine departs,
And twilight creeps over the tide:
How sweet, at that moment, to steal through the grove,
In the shade of that beech to recline,
And dream of the maiden who gave it her love,
And left it thus hallow’d in mine.
Here’s the rock that she sat on, the spray that she held,
When she bent round its gray trunk with me;
And smiled, as with soft, timid eyes, she beheld
The name I had carved on the tree;-
So carved that the letters should look to the west,
As well their dear magic became,
So that when the dim sunshine was sinking to rest,
The last ray should fall on her name.
The singing-thrush moans on that beech-tree at morn,
The winds through the laurel-bush sigh,
And afar comes the sound of the waterman’s horn,
And the hum of the waterfall, nigh.
No echoes there wake but are magical, each,
Like words, on my spirit they fall;
They speak of the hours when we came to the beech,
And listen’d together to all.
And oh, when the shadows creep out from the wood,
When the breeze stirs no more on the spray, 
And the sunbeam of autumn, that plays on the flood,
Is melting, each moment, away;
How dear, at that moment, to steal through the grove,
In the shade of that beech to recline,
And the dream of the maiden who gave it her love,
And left it thus hallow’d in mine.

Works Cited

"Bird, Robert Montgomery." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 29 Mar. 2007.  <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9015349>.
“Fairmount Park.” Welcome to Fairmount Park: Philadelphia’s Park System. 2007. 29 March 2007. <http://www.fairmountpark.org/index.asp>.
“History.” Laurel Hill Cemetery. 29 March 2007. <http://www.thelaurelhillcemetery.org/index.php?m=1&p=1&s=1>.
“Laurel Hill Cemetary.” Seven Walking Tours: Fairmount Park. <2007. 29 March 2007. http://www.ushistory.org/districts/fairmountpark/laure.htm>.
Martin, Terence. “Bird, Robert Montgomery.” American National Biography Online. Feb. 2000. <http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-02682.html>.

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