William Butler Yeats, the esteemed 20th century poet, was in love with the Irish nationalist Maud Gonne; his poem "The Two Trees" was originally written for her. Gonne was very devoted to rather uncompromising ideologies, but in this poem Yeats convinces her to perceive the world with more gray areas and fewer patches of black and white. In “The Two Trees,” Yeats uses Edenic imagery, enjambement, and phonetics to create reconciliation between the two seemingly disjoined stanzas, suggesting that life cannot be so neatly divided and that opposites such as “good” and “evil” are actually related.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayYeats uses Edenic imagery to highlight the duality of life; comparing the Tree of Life to the Tree of Knowledge, shows that “good” and “evil” are intertwined. The poem begins with the statement "Dearest, look into your heart, / There grows the sacred tree"; (1-2) a reference to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, the tree of ignorance and "the inner life". truth." He goes on to illustrate this tree as one with “sacred branches”(3) that spring “from joy” and bear “trembling flowers”(4). Even the “changing colors of its fruits/Have endowed the stars with cheerful light ” (5-6). These images evoke a pleasant mood, but they also seem fleeting; the frequent use of verbs ending in -ing gives the impression of constant movement. and this feeling proves true in the second stanza, when the poem changes dramatically in tone and imagery. Here grows “a fatal image/That the stormy night receives” (25-26) in stark contrast to the “sacred tree” of the poem. first stanza. This tree, the Tree of Knowledge, has "[roots] half hidden under the snow,/broken branches and blackened leaves" (27-28). structural between the stanzas - for example, the first stanza ends with "Beloved, look into your heart" while the second stanza ends with "Look no". more in the bitter glass” – ties the elements together. The parallels between the first and second stanzas reflect the parallels between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. From the Kabbalist point of view, these two trees are actually the same and differ only in the perspective from which they are viewed. Through these Edenic images, Yeats suggests that nothing is truly purely “good” or purely “evil”; rather, even the most righteous ideals have opposing sides. Yeats does not often use enjambement, and most of the lines in this poem are finished; therefore, he uses enjambement to inject stress into this poem. This is first seen in lines 5-6 ("The changing colors of his fruit/Have endowed the stars with cheerful light"), when Yeats employs enjambement to create tension in a poem that otherwise flows very smoothly and pleasant at this point. The reader is forced to move on to the next line; this tension is heightened by the word "gifted" in line 6. While this word can simply mean "a gift," it can also be defined as "property given to a widow after the death of her husband," adding an undercurrent of sadness to a fascinating image that suggests vitality. This use of opposites creates tension in the poem at the beginning. Later, in the second stanza, Yeats uses enjambement again to avoid overwhelming the reader. Since the second verse uses much more tense and negative language, the enjambement serves to break up the lines to avoid weighing down a single line with too many undesirable words. For example, in lines 25-26 ("For there grows a fatal image / That.