Feb 14, 2021
“Will There Ever Be A Tree?”
Inspired by “There Will Come Soft Rain” by Sara Teasdale
They’ve heard of rain, They’ve heard of the sea;
Will there ever be a Tree?
They wished they were born an Earthling;
But can never tell them of the taste of a tangerine,
And can never tell them of the feeling, this time of fall.
They sit by the window as they stall, looking at it all.
The view shows a field, sandy and bleak.
Exploring was not an option (yet)
so they sat there eyeing the dim stars and peaked,
at what looked like desertion.
To look at the Earth and know they are the future,
gave much hope to them.
They then thought of her,
before having to go back to work on the dome.
So that (one day) they no longer had to be encased in chrome.
They then thought “Will there ever be a Tree?”
And with great optimism, they shout
“There will be a Tree! And it starts with me.”
This is a story about a martian with aspirations for the future, who works on terraforming Mars, bringing hope in the midst of sadness. In “There Will Come Soft Rain” by Sara Teasdale, the speaker -who we can assume is an earthling talking in the first person- tells us of the end of humanity and what the world will be like without us. This was changed to a martian’s life -in the 3rd person- to change the way we viewed the end, to instead a new beginning. Not only does this mean the setting’s changed from Earth to Mars, but also a shift in seasons from spring to fall. This was done despite extinction in the original poem being upsetting, showing a very calm and peaceful setting that I wanted to keep. As leaves die and fall, I wanted the decay of Earth to also mean the growth on Mars, showing that even in pits of extinction we will prosper. We see this in the quote “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, If mankind perished utterly;”(Teasdale, Sara) showing us nature’s uncaringness for the wars we wage on ourselves, and “There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,”(Teasdale, Sara) which is using the word ‘soft’, fills the sentence with a very pleasant feeling. I also changed the metaphors describing the beauty and vibrant colors in the poem with words such as “dim” and “bleak”, so that things would appear bland. I did this to give the impression that -though still very beautiful- there was nothing that really stands out. I honestly felt bad creating my own version, because this is one of my favorite poems and just felt like I’ve defiled it. However, I wanted to turn the beauty of death into the beauty of hope.
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