He says "I"d go by climbing a birch tree Toward heaven One could do worse than be a swinger of birches." ... The trees bends like a boy has been swinging on it. ... Following this is summer, and the Frost says that a boy has played on his father's tree so long that it took the life out of the tree. ... He discusses how the boy jumping down from the tree reminded him of his adolescence. ... They climb upon its branches just to see how high they can get. ...

• Word Count: 383
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

It is used to represent both literally the tree or trees, and figuratively, they represent a journey to peace, a climb to "heaven". ... They are shown as an opponent for a boy that, once beaten, though very resilient, will never rise again. ... He can see that he is no longer the young man that once he was, not able to climb the trees like he did nor able to play like that. ... Climbing "toward Heaven". ... Focusing on the trees and the cold. ...

• Word Count: 1234
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The first image that Frost describes to his readers is a realistic picture of birch trees being bent from an ice storm. ... The young boy is the second image that Frost is displaying to his readers. This young boy is representative of the child in us all, who finds pleasure in the simplicity of life. All to often society helps us to forget the pleasure found in merely swinging from the branches of a birch tree. ... Then once when we find that inner peace on our climb toward heaven we may be gently set back down onto the Earth in which we belong, experiencing a reincarnation of the soul. ...

• Word Count: 671
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The boy is able to take on his tree, and learn from it. ... The boy's trees are used gently, avoiding the pain of being bent forever by callous ice storms. ... The imagery of the boy jumping once he had reached the top of his tree is pointing out that once you've learned something you begin again, either with a different tree or the same one. ... Frost realizes that he is no longer that farm boy. He's climbed tree after tree. ...

• Word Count: 680
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The speaker in the poem is presently looking at the trees while thinking about his childhood. ... As the speaker is looking at the drooping trees, he imagines what could have caused the trees to droop. Obviously from experience the speaker concludes that the droopiness of the trees was caused by an ice storm, because the speaker confirms to the audience that a boy's swinging on the birches could not be the cause of the permanent damage to the trees. ... The speaker discusses going to heaven by climbing a birch tree to the very top until he could go no further, and then gently being plac...

• Word Count: 1047
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School