The second stanza continues to explain his grief where he is planting a tree for the remembrance of his child. The “sequoia” different than “olive or a fig tree” could represent the idea of the birth of hope in between the changing of the narrator’s traditions, as planting means a new beginning with the long stand of it. "A promise of new fruits in other autumns" also reinforces the fact of the rebirth hope.
The narrator persists on explaining the day he plants a tree for his son in the third stanza. The narrator’s radical grief strengthen as he defies “the practical costume of our fathers” when planting this tree. The narrator seems to address the tree as a human “planting you, our native giant”, he also wraps a “lock of hair” of the child reinforcing the importance of the tree in his tribute, and gives further emphasis on the human comparison.
In the fourth stanza the narrator addresses the tree and promises to “give what we can” meaning the love that will be passed on to it through the death of the child as he is regretting the care he could have given his child but could not. The narrator is hoping that the “slender shoot” will grow and he asks the nature to help form the “water” when it rains with the light found form the “western light”, these images additionally emphasizes on the optimism of the narrator in the future.
The last stanza presents the idea of infinite life of the tree where even “when our family is no more, all of his unborn brothers dead, Every niece and nephew scattered” the tree will continue to stand through all this where future generation will never know the real “secret” -meaning the reason- of planting the sequoia. The speaker is still willing to try to have other children, “unborn brothers”.
The poet’s choice of diction mirror the different feelings the speaker is having during the process of planting the tree and burying his son where the mood is constantly changing from a grieving father to one with future optimism in life. The five stanzas structure contradicts each other as one discusses the death and sorrow while other discusses the rebirth of hope through planting a tree.
The sequoia will keep on growing representing the life of the son even after the death of the whole family. The spontaneous dialogue of the father gives a genuine effect as he explains the actions. The ambiguity of the poem and the vague theme of “life” and “death” make a paradoxical effect, which leaves the reader clinging as the poem progresses.