The poem is about birches, trees that grow in temperate regions and are noted for their resilience. The poet describes a situation in which the trees are bent either by a boy swinging them, or by nature through the effect of snow and ice-storms. Details of the ravages brought upon the trees are provided as they click 'crash' under the snow until summer when the warmth of the sun melts the snow and enables them to rise again. Even so, they are cut and loaded off as timber.
The emphasis throughout the poem is on the resilience of the trees, whether they are bent by humans or by nature itself And in spite of the fact that they never right themselves to their former heights, they never fall never to rise "years afterwards", as their trunks arch in the woods attractively, like girls' hair tossed "before them over their heads to dry".
The poet even recalls a memorable incident of some boy that had taken to swinging birches, and taken care not to swing too low to lose hold as the trees swing back. He remembers his own childhood experience too. The very fact of the experience is not lost upon the poet. Indeed the resilience of the trees provides a lesson for his own determination to endure life the way birches do. Their supple frame enables them to endure what both man and nature do to them. And that is the lesson of endurance the poet learns from the observation of and experience with swinging the trees.
Points to note:
(a) The havoc wreaked on the birch trees by snow and ice storms which bend them.
(b) The resilience of the birch trees as they lie or bend.
(c) The swinging of birch trees for sport by "some boy" and the speaker, illustrating their ability to withstand abuse.
(d) The lesson the speaker learns about the birch trees through observation and experience.
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