Trees

The trees in the poem “The House that Jack Built” symbolize the processes of rebirth and reincarnation. The poem begins with the initial felling of the trees, and then follows them on a journey through time and ages as they are continuously used and reused for their timber as a source of building material and fuel. Then, after each iteration, what remains of the trees is left to decay and return back to the earth in order to reintegrate with the soil and give way to a new forest with new trees.

Skeletons

The skeletons Jackself discovers in the loft of Lamanby in the poem “The Lofts” symbolize the figures of a literary past that Jackself finds himself an unwilling participant in. This is predominantly signaled by the names Jackself gives to the skeletons, such as “Edwardself, Billself,/and Wulfself” all names that echo prominent literary...