The Christmas Tree
Read 'The Christmas Tree' by 'Robert William Service' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.
In the dark and damp of the alley cold,
Lay the Christmas tree that hadn't been sold;
By a shopman dourly thrown outside;
With the ruck and rubble of Christmas-tide;
Trodden deep in the muck and mire,
Unworthy even to feed a fire...
So I stopped and salvaged that tarnished tree,
And thus is the story it told to me:
"My Mother was Queen of the forest glade,
And proudly I prospered in her shade;
For she said to me: 'When I am dead,
You will be monarch in my stead,
And reign, as I, for a hundred years,
A tower of triumph amid your peers,
When I crash in storm I will yield you space;
Son, you will worthily take my place.'
"So I grew in grace like a happy child,
In the heart of the forest free and wild;
And the moss and the ferns were all about,
And the craintive mice crept in and out;
And a wood-dove swung on my highest twig,
And a chipmunk chattered: 'So big! So big!'
And a shy fawn nibbled a tender shoot,
And a rabbit nibbled under my root...
Oh, I was happy in rain and shine
As I thought of the destiny that was mine!
Then a man with an axe came cruising by
And I knew that my fate was to fall and die.
"With a hundred others he packed me tight,
And we drove to a magic city of light,
To an avenue lined with Christmas trees,
And I thought: may be I'll be one of these,
Tinselled with silver and tricked with gold,
A lovely sight for a child to behold;
A-glitter with lights of every hue,
Ruby and emerald, orange and blue,
And kiddies dancing, with shrieks of glee -
One might fare worse than a Christmas tree.
"So they stood me up with a hundred more
In the blaze of a big department store;
But I thought of the forest dark and still,
And the dew and the snow and the heat and the chill,
And the soft chinook and the summer breeze,
And the dappled deer and the birds and the bees...
I was so homesick I wanted to cry,
But patient I waited for someone to buy.
And some said 'Too big,' and some 'Too small,'
And some passed on saying nothing at all.
Then a little boy cried: Ma, buy that one,'
But she shook her head: 'Too dear, my son."
So the evening came, when they closed the store,
And I was left on the littered floor,
A tree unwanted, despised, unsold,
Thrown out at last in the alley cold."
Then I said: "Don't sorrow; at least you'll be
A bright and beautiful New Year's tree,
All shimmer and glimmer and glow and gleam,
A radiant sight like a fairy dream.
For there is a little child I know,
Who lives in poverty, want and woe;
Who lies abed from morn to night,
And never has known an hour's delight..."
So I stood the tree at the foot of her bed:
"Santa's a little late," I said.
"Poor old chap! Snowbound on the way,
But he's here at last, so let's be gay."
Then she woke from sleep and she saw you there,
And her eyes were love and her lips were prayer.
And her thin little arms were stretched to you
With a yearning joy that they never knew.
She woke from the darkest dark to see
Like a heavenly vision, that Christmas Tree.
Her mother despaired and feared the end,
But from that day she began to mend,
To play, to sing, to laugh with glee...
Bless you, O little Christmas Tree!
You died, but your life was not in vain:
You helped a child to forget her pain,
And let hope live in our hearts again.
The Christmas Tree Summary and Analysis
Robert William Service begins with a sorry sight: a Christmas tree discarded in an alley, unsold and trampled like rubbish. The narrator rescues it, and the poem quickly turns into a dramatic monologue in which the tree seems to tell its own life story, moving from proud forest beginnings to the disappointment of being rejected in the marketplace. That shift from object to witness gives the poem its emotional force, making the tree's humiliation and usefulness feel personal rather than merely decorative.
The poem's middle section contrasts two worlds. In the forest, the tree belongs to a living order of growth, animals, weather, and seasonal change; in the city, it is judged by price, size, and appearance. The final movement brings the tree into a poor child's room, where it becomes more than holiday ornament: it becomes a gift of hope, comfort, and imaginative joy. Service ends on a note of moral vindication, suggesting that something cast aside by commerce can still matter deeply when it is given with compassion and placed where it is truly needed.
Tone in The Christmas Tree
Service's tone is tender, storytelling, and quietly moral, with a touch of sentimental warmth that never fully loses its sympathy for the tree's humiliation. The mood moves from bleak and shabby at the start to luminous and consoling at the end, so the reader feels both the sting of neglect and the relief of rescue. Even the poem's joy carries an ache, because the brightness comes only after the tree has been cut down, sold short, and thrown away.
This literary analysis was generated with AI and may contain interpretive differences. Provide your analysis in the comments section.
Themes in The Christmas Tree
- Compassion and rescue - The narrator's decision to salvage the discarded tree sets up the poem's central act of kindness, showing how care can restore dignity to what others have thrown away.
- Commercialism versus meaning - The tree is treated as merchandise in the store, measured by price and appearance, yet the poem argues that its true worth appears only when it brings comfort to a suffering child.
- Loss and rejection - From the forest to the shop floor to the alley, the tree experiences repeated forms of abandonment, making its journey a quiet study in being unwanted.
- Nature and human use - The tree's life begins in a harmonious natural world, but human hands cut it down, display it, and discard it, raising questions about how people transform living things into seasonal objects.
- Hope in hardship - The child's fragile recovery after seeing the tree gives the poem its uplifting ending, suggesting that wonder can survive even in poverty and illness.
- Transformation through imagination - The tree's story changes from an emblem of waste into a symbol of joy, showing how a compassionate imagination can give new meaning to ordinary things.
Literary Devices in The Christmas Tree
- Personification - The tree is given a life story, a voice, and feelings, allowing readers to experience its rejection and redemption as if they were human.
- Narrative frame - The poem begins with the narrator finding the tree and then moves into the tree's own tale, creating a layered structure that deepens sympathy.
- Direct speech - The tree's recollected words and the narrator's spoken reassurance to the child give the poem dramatic immediacy and warmth.
- Contrast - Service sharply contrasts forest beauty with urban waste, and poverty with festive brightness, intensifying the poem's emotional turns.
- Imagery - Vivid details of mud, snow, lights, and a child's room make the scenes feel tangible and heighten the movement from gloom to radiance.
- Repetition - Repeated references to being unwanted or to glittering light emphasize both the tree's despair and its renewed purpose.
- Symbolic journey - The tree's passage from woodland, to shop, to alley, to bedside mirrors a movement from life, to neglect, to grace.
- Sound patterning - The poem uses strong rhythm and rhyme to keep the narrative brisk and memorable, suiting its storytelling style.
Symbolism in The Christmas Tree
- The Christmas tree - It stands for beauty that is overlooked until it is placed in a setting where it can give comfort and joy.
- The alley - This bleak place symbolizes social discard and the fate of things judged worthless by ordinary commerce.
- The forest - The tree's original home represents natural dignity, belonging, and the fuller life that human use interrupts.
- The department store - It symbolizes the market's impersonal valuation of living things, where worth is reduced to price and display.
- The child's bed - This becomes a site of healing and renewal, where the tree's meaning is finally fulfilled.
- Christmas light - The bright decorations suggest hope, wonder, and the possibility of spiritual warmth amid hardship.
Historical Context of The Christmas Tree
Robert William Service is often associated with narrative verse that uses a plainspoken, dramatic style to tell memorable human-interest stories. This poem fits that tradition by blending a sentimental Christmas subject with an almost ballad-like movement from hardship to redemption.
The poem also reflects a broader early twentieth-century Christmas culture in which holiday imagery could carry both charity and social feeling. Its concern for poverty, consumption, and the redemptive power of giving places it alongside a long literary tradition that contrasts festive abundance with the needs of the poor.
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