Now the leaves have fallen.
-- The Speaker (Line 1)

Importance: The poet immediately evokes a time of endings and decay. In preparation for winter, trees have shed their leaves in order to preserve water, energy, and nutrients. The word "now" places emphasis on the current circumstance.

The trees have pulled their aliveness back in from their branches, down into their fortress trunks and the dark, subterranean closeness of their roots.
-- The Speaker (Lines 2-6)

Importance: Rather than focus solely on the stark external appearance of trees with bare branches, the speaker delves deeper to look at what is happening inside the trees. The trees draw theirenergy reserves inward toward the trunk and down toward the roots, thereby entering a state of dormancy.

Every year they let go of exactly what everyone says is most beautiful about them to save their own lives.
-- The Speaker (Lines 7-10)

Importance: Here, the speaker contextualizes the trees in relation to humans. The biological process of losing leaves is an...