Birches poem

The main image of the poem is of a series of birch trees that have been bowed down so that they no longer stand up straight but rather are arched over. While the poet quickly establishes that he knows the real reason that this has happened - ice storms have weighed down the branches of the birch trees, causing them to bend over - he prefers instead to imagine that something else entirely has happened: a young boy has climbed to the top of the trees and pulled them down.