“The Oak Tree” and the Oak Tree Symbol Analysis

“The Oak Tree” is the poem that Orlando writes for nearly 300 years in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, and it represents Orlando’s identity as poet and his—later, her—growth as a writer and a person throughout the novel. The narrator first mentions “The Oak Tree” in the second chapter, which is set some time during the 17th century; however, Orlando refers to the poem as his “boyish dream,” which implies it has been around for much longer. After Nicholas Greene gives one of Orlando’s original plays a poor review, Orlando burns all his work but retains “The Oak Tree,” claiming it is “very short.” Orlando can’t bring himself to burn “The Oak Tree” because it is central to his identity as a poet. It also is different from Orlando’s other works, which are long and pretentious.

Throughout Orlando’s nearly 400-year life, “The Oak Tree” goes through many revisions and rewrites. The first date written on the poem is 1586, and by the time Orlando places her poem under the oak tree on her family’s estate in 1928, it hardly resembles the poem it began as. Over the years, “The Oak Tree” goes from “gloomy” and “in love with death” to “sprightly and satirical,” and Orlando’s style changes from poetry to prose, then to drama and back again to poetry. Orlando, too, changes with her poem, but through all these changes, Orlando remains “fundamentally the same.” She remains a poet, and the constant presence of “The Oak Tree” throughout the book and throughout Orlando’s long life is evidence of this. This consistency is reflected in the physical representation of the oak tree, which connotes sturdiness, strength, and longevity. Orlando recalls seeing the tree for the first time 1588, just after beginning her lifelong poem, and the two are intimately linked in Orlando’s mind. By placing the poem at the base of the oak tree at the end of the novel, Orlando returns her work to nature, her ultimate inspiration.