Peach Tree Soft and Tender Poem Analysis

This classic poem, “Peach Tree Soft and Tender” is a lyric poem composed around one thousand B.C.E in early China. A lyric poem is defined as a short poem that expresses a feeling from the author, which can be interpreted by the readers when examining the patterns practiced and then analyzing the meaning of each sentence. The poet’s feelings are then portrayed using imagery and repetition that aid readers to discover the story that the poet attempts to express. This poem takes the physical characteristics of a fully developing peach tree and compares it to the joys and beauty of becoming a newlywed that is entering a new phase in her life with a new family. Just like the growth of a peach tree, new chapters in a grown woman’s life can blossom into compelling, beautiful experiences. The purpose of this poem was to have readers visualize the sensations that a bride goes through in a way that applies physical visuals of a thriving peach tree. 

The first line of the poem, which is identical in every stanza, opens with “Peach tree soft and tender” because there is beauty in the tree’s fragility. From the fruit it yields, coated and a short fine fur, to the abundance of leaves it has, the tree visually embodies the soft and delicateness that a bride might feel on her wedding day. When it addresses the glowing of the blossoms in the next line, this refers to the radiance of the bride as she presents herself to her groom and upcoming family. One might look at the bride in awe of her beauty much like one would when observing a peach tree blooming its first blossoms. Moreover, this line may also represent the beauty of the beginning of new experiences, these experiences being both the visual aesthetic one sees when admiring a peach tree, and the experience of becoming a wife. The bride now signifies a blossom, one of the first steps to growing to become a peach. Lines further on discuss the ripening of fruit, which could insinuate the beginning of motherhood, or the maturity that becoming a wife has given her. These lines then connect with the second line of the last stanza, which speaks about the fullness of the peach tree's leaves. The poet is using the fullness of the leaves to describe the fullness of her gown, and the fullness she feels in her heart as she starts her own family and further connects with her new one. Readers of the poem can see the physical beauty of a peach tree and connect it to the physical and inner beauty of a bride when analyzing the poets’ intentions. This lyric shares many characteristics of what one sees in a poem, but also has a slightly uncommon structure to it. While several people associate rhyming with poems, this poem does not specifically contain words that rhyme at the end of certain lines, but rather has the repetition of sentences in certain lines. 

The first, third, and some of the final line of each stanza are all the same throughout the poem. When one notices repetition in a poem, it usually means that those repeated lines hold a certain meaning that the poet wants readers to grasp. The repetition of the peach tree could be an emphasis to the readers of the connection it shares of the newlywed, which is then further connected with the change in the second line of each stanza. The poem’s word choice could also be structured in a way that lets readers assume the poet is the observer. When the poet describes the bride in the last lines of each stanza, they say, “The bride is going to her home/She well befits this house.” Readers can infer by these lines that the poet is possibly an outsider looking at the bride and how she is adjusting to the changes in her life. That could be either someone attending the wedding or even a close friend who is admiring the experiences of the bride. The word choice used when describing the full, plumpness of the peach tree and its fruit is to give readers a visual of the beauty of the peach tree, while also visualizing the beauty of the bride, since the peach tree and the bride are being compared in this poem. The use of repetition and comparison in this poem aided in telling the story of what it must feel like to become a newlywed. The whole premise of the poem is to describe the physical attributes of becoming a bride and being a newlywed. The peach tree is being used in comparison to being a bride because of the similar attributes that the poet has discovered. The use of repetition in this poem can accurately support this idea because of its emphasis on not only the physical attributes of the peach tree but also the experience that the bride is going through. At the beginning of reading this poem, the first two lines can be said to be describing the peach tree and how it is physically present itself. After the first two lines, readers can understand that the poem is about a bride becoming a new woman as she steps into this new phase in her life. 

The second line of each stanza not only describes the peach tree but also uniquely describes the bride so that both the tree and the bride are accurately described. while the wording of the second line of each stanza refers to more physical attributes of a tree, for example, leaves or ripening fruit, this choice of word was used in a way for readers to view the bride similarly. there is beauty in the new chapter of the bride's life as there is beauty in the blossoming of a peach tree. with this being a lyric poem, readers then understand that the poem is expressing a certain feeling, that likely being a joy for the newlywed and awing in her new experiences. The characteristics of a peach tree and its connection to a bride can support the idea that a growing peach tree and a newlywed are both experiencing the beauty of growth in different ways but of a similar aesthetic. The lyric poem, "Peach Tree Soft and Tender," is the connection between nature and human experience. It recounts a story that former brides can reminisce about using their own experiences, while also providing those who have never been a bride before a visual understanding of how such an experience can feel. Readers can follow along with the poet's view of the peach tree's beauty and identify how a bride's new experiences share similar characteristics. 

Nevertheless, the poet's use of repetition and unique word choice for their poem helps readers see how the development of human life is almost indistinguishable from the growth of nature. As readers visualize the blooming of a peach tree's flowers, the ripening of the peaches, and the fullness of the leaves, the readers are also capable of visualizing the blooming of the bride's character, the ripening of the bride's maturity, and the fullness of her life as she not only becomes a wife but a new woman.