The Moon and the Yew Tree Literary Elements

The unnamed first-person speaker is in a church graveyard near her house, late at night, musing on her dark and dreary surroundings, comparing the full moon to an emotionally detached mother figure.

Four septets (seven-line stanzas); free verse, with some rhymes and lines in pentameter

Metaphors:
– “The moon is no door” (Line 8): Though a negation, this metaphor entertains the idea that the moon can be like a portal opening up and inviting others in. The speaker suggests that the moon seems, unlike such a door, unwelcoming.
– “her blue garments” (Line 18): The blue sky surrounding the moon is compared to cloth. The color also evokes the iconography of the Virgin Mary.
“I have fallen a long way” (Line 22): The fall could be literal, but is also figurative in the Biblical sense that it suggests a spiritual fall from grace.
“the saints will be all blue / Floating on their delicate feet over cold pews, / Their hands and faces stiff with holiness.” (Lines 24¬–26): The images of saints inside a church, often hung above the pews, are compared to ghosts or other supernatural beings that can float in the air. Their blueness refers not only to the mood, but also to the lighting and atmosphere within the church at night. Holiness, then, is compared to a physical condition that can make hands and faces of these figures appear stiff.

Similes:
– “as if I were God” (Line 3): The bending movement of the grass is compared to acts of worship towards the speaker.
– “White as a knuckle” (Line 9): This simile not only describes the moon’s color, but also evokes the adjectival expression “white-knuckle,” which describes extreme excitement or fear.
– “It drags the sea after it like a dark crime” (Line 10): In this complex metaphor, the gravitational pull of the moon is compared to the act of dragging, and the sea is compared to an object that can be dragged, such as a net or cloth, which is then compared to the abstract notion of a crime that one might carry as a burden.

Alliteration/Consonance:
– “cold and planetary” (Line 1)
– “black. The light is blue” (Line 2)
– “grasses unload their griefs” (Line 3)
– “murmuring of their humility” (Line 4)
– “house by a row of headstones” (Line 6)
– “Sunday, the bells startle the sky” (Line 12)
– “moon is my mother” (Line 17)
– “face of the effigy” (Line 20)
– “gentled by candles, / Bending” (Lines 20–21)
– “will be all blue, / Floating” (Lines 24–25)
– “hands and faces stiff with holiness” (Line 26)
– “bald and wild” (Line 27)
– “blackness—blackness and silence” (Line 28)

Assonance:
– “light of the mind” (Line 1)
– “griefs on my feet” (Line 3)
– “spiritous mists inhabit this” (Line 5)
– “right, / White” (Lines 8–9)
– "Eight great” (Line 13)
– “blue garments unloose” (Line 18)
– “Clouds are flowering” (Line 22)
– “blue [...] pews” (Lines 24–25)

Situational irony is produced by descriptions of the personified moon’s aloofness. “The moon is my mother,” says the speaker, then immediately contradicts the expectation that the moon will provide motherly warmth or care, by pointing out that “[s]he is not sweet like Mary” (Line 17). “Mary” refers to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ and often a symbol of maternal love in Christian iconography.

Lyric, confessional poetry

A church graveyard near the speaker's (possibly seaside) house; the night of a full moon; the speaker's mental image of this graveyard and night

Solemn, cryptic, contemplative, grim

While the poem specifies neither a protagonist nor an antagonist, there is tension between the speaker and the moon (personified as the speaker’s emotionally detached mother) as well as between the speaker and the inhospitable environment of the churchyard.

Feelings of disorientation caused by both the apathy of the moon (i.e. a maternal figure) and the bleakness of the church and its graveyard vs. the speaker’s desire for affection and a sense of direction

Lines 27–28 are arguably the climax of this poem, since they conclusively deny any possibility of empathy from the moon or the yew tree. “The moon sees nothing of” (Line 27) the saints in the church, nor does she respond, for that matter, to the speaker’s desire for maternal tenderness. The repeated message of the yew tree in Line 28 (“blackness—blackness and silence”) is likewise morbid and hopeless, bringing the poem to its bleak conclusion.

The beginning of the poem is mirrored by the ending: Line 2 mentions that “[t]he trees of the mind are black,” and the penultimate line (Line 28) states once more that “[t]he message of the yew tree is blackness—blackness and silence.” Though not an instance of narrative foreshadowing per se, this parallel emphasizes both the stillness of the graveyard and the sense of resignation that permeates the poem.

“She is not sweet like Mary” (Line 17): The speaker understates, and thus emphasizes, the cold and unwelcoming nature of the moon by simply saying that she is “not sweet.”

– “Resurrection” (Line 13): In the New Testament of the Bible, the Resurrection refers to the incident in which Jesus Christ rises from the dead after being crucified. The church bells in the poem are “affirming the Resurrection,” or ringing as part of religious rituals commemorating the Biblical event.
– “Mary” (Line 17): The Virgin Mary is a Biblical figure who is the mother of Jesus Christ, and is worshipped in certain denominations of Christianity such as Catholicism. In religious images, she is often associated with her “blue garments” (Line 18) which represent her purity and/or her royalty as Christ’s mother. Mary is mentioned in the poem to represent orthodox ideals of motherhood, hospitality, and “tenderness” (Line 19), which the moon lacks.
– “yew tree” (Line 15): Yew trees are often planted in church courtyards or graveyards, and symbolically associated with the church. In European pre-Christian religions and mythology (e.g., Celtic mythology), yew trees are symbols of death and rebirth.
– “Gothic shape” (Line 15): The word “Gothic” may relate to Gothic architecture (a medieval western European architectural style characterized by pointed arches, etc.), the Dark Ages (12th–16th centuries), and/or the Goths (the Eastern Germanic people). It also evokes the genre of gothic literature, which is centered around death, horror, and the grotesque.

Metonymy:
– “the bells” (Line 12): Here, the bells are associated with, and represent, the church and Sunday service.
– “Her blue garments” (Line 18): Blue garments are worn by, and often represent, the Virgin Mary in many traditional depictions.

Synecdoche:
– “Eight great tongues” (Line 13): The tongue of a bell (the swinging part that makes it ring, more often referred to as a clapper) is used to represent the instrument as a whole, while also evoking the organ in the mouth of a human or animal.
– “The eyes lift” (Line 16): These lifted eyes, isolated, represent the gaze and attention of the speaker.

– “grasses unload their griefs [...] murmuring of their humility” (Lines 3–4): The grasses are compared to human beings who think and feel (“grief,” “humility”) and produce speech (“murmuring”).
– “spiritous mists inhabit this place” (Line 5): Mists are described as human (or paranormal) residents of the graveyard.
– “The moon [...] is a face in its own right [...] terribly upset [...] With the O-gape of complete despair” (Lines 8–11): The moon is compared to a visibly “upset” human face, as well as to the wide “O-gape” of a “despair[ing]” person’s mouth.
– “Eight great tongues [...] bong out their names” (Line 12): The bells are compared to speaking human mouths that “bong out,” or say aloud, their own names.
– “The moon is my mother” (Line 17): The speaker compares the moon to her human mother.
– “the face of the stars” (Line 23): The stars, like the moon which was personified in Line 8, are described to have a face.
– “The moon [...] is bald and wild” (Line 27): The moon is described as a human head that is bald, unlike, for instance, the long-haired and traditionally feminine Virgin Mary in religious iconography.
– “the message of the yew tree is blackness” (Line 28): The blackness of the yew tree (and/or its shadows) is compared to a “message” sent perhaps by a human being or manmade text.

“O-gape of complete despair” (Line 11): The “complete” despair of the moon’s figurative gape is somewhat exaggerated, as is the shape of the gaping figurative mouth (somehow a perfect “O”).

– “murmuring” (Line 4): The word “murmur” approximates the sound of quiet, indistinct speech.
– “bong” (Line 14): Used here as a verb, the word “bong” mimics the low-pitched sound of a bell.