Presentation in Everyday Life
In the opening stanza, the speaker compares language to a performance, suggesting that social interaction always has an element of presentation to it; a fictive recreation of the reality beneath. This is expressed in the idea that meetings that seem to be by “chance” are actually quite scripted and planned, suggesting a relationship the true nature of which must be hidden from the world. From this point, the reader could assume the meeting is between illicit lovers hiding from certain people or something more sinister and expansive. Perhaps homosexual lovers who must hide from the world. The ambiguous and non-precise title "Some Trees" thematically underscores that this nature of hiding and presenting takes place everywhere rather than some place in particular.
Room to Breathe
It is significant that this “chance” meeting of an arranged assignation takes place where it does. The presence of the trees interacts with the two figures who are meeting. The trees provide context for setting, but also act as metaphorical interlopers into their privacy. The speaker is confident of the trees that
their merely being there
Means something;
This may not be as metaphorical as it seems. The presence of the trees is felt; something about them has become a tangible player. What purpose do trees serve? They provide oxygen. Trees literally give people the necessary requirement for breathing. The meeting her is secret and far way; they have found a location giving them room to breathe. And in that room provided has come happiness.
Loneliness and Alienation
The happiness created by the breathing space lent by the trees and the distance from the rest of the world is made all the sweeter by the realization that it won’t last. Once the two figures leave the comfort of some trees they head back to the real world where reticence to take off the mask and live beneath the presentation of the performance sucks up all the oxygen. Life beneath the trees is a painting and a song. The stolen moment is compared to a performance even though, ironically, it is actually where the two lovers can remove their disguises, channel down the performance and be real. The real world prescribes loneliness and alienation while the world beneath some trees mandates that reality become mere presentation.
