The first line of the poem describes the speaker's state of consciousness: she is enclosed in a cold sleep as she admires the beauty of the moon. Journeying on a night train, the speaker observes her surroundings. She looks out from the chaotic atmosphere of the train (which is dark and loud) and sees the landscape under the cold white sheet of moonlight. She imagines the landscape as the body of a woman. The land is the country that built the speaker's heart, and the speaker figuratively sees the land's delicate dry breasts.
On a colorless slope, small trees grow in an articulate, sharp, and purposeful way under the dry air and wind. This growth is compared to the way poetry moves. The speaker identifies the trees as the native Australian species box-tree and ironbark, and tells these trees to use their roots to violently break the virgin rock and to draw breaths of dew from the surrounding darkness. The trees will then be able to reanimate what is not living, creating life in this harsh and barren landscape.
The speaker instructs the trees to form a conscious skin of sense over the blind rock by imbuing the landscape with life. The trees dance beneath the great and dry sky, and the trees' branches are described as slender. The speaker suddenly wakes up, and observes the trees outside the train with new eyes. The trees burn into flowers that the speaker considers to be even lovelier than the white moon that illuminates them.
