Summary

On a windy night, two men with flashlights prepare to cut down a tree. Just before they do it, an owl leaps from a tree. Everything else is silent. The saw angrily attacks the tree. The speaker considers how the repercussions will be felt for years. It’s now the morning, with remnants of bonfires the night before. The speaker’s daughter runs inside with a leaf caught in her hair.

Analysis

“Sycamore Gap” begins by establishing a time and place: a windy night with a sycamore tree as its focal point, and some human influence, not yet explored, starting to intrude. The first line uses personification to create an unconscious emotional connection with the tree: “The sycamore rattles its keys in the wind” (Line 1). “[K]eys” in this context refers to seed clusters, but this humanisation of the tree contrasts the way the...