A WORK OF ARTIFICE CRITICAL APPRECIATION
1. Summary of the Poem “A Work of Artifice” presents a simple yet powerful image of a bonsai tree growing in a decorative pot. The poet begins by describing the natural potential of the tree. If left free, it could have grown eighty feet tall on a mountainside and faced natural forces like lightning. However, the tree has been deliberately pruned by a gardener, reducing it to only nine inches in height. The gardener trims the branches every day and speaks to the tree gently, telling it that being small, cozy, and weak is its natural state. He even tells the tree that it is fortunate to grow in a pot. These words are deceptive because they hide the truth: the tree has been artificially restricted. In the later part of the poem, the poet shifts focus from the bonsai tree to human beings, especially women. She suggests that just like the tree, people are also controlled and limited from an early age. The references to “bound feet,” “crippled brain,” and “hair in curlers” ind...