No Ordinary Tree
Tree Tag #2733 on Baylor's Sustainability Map
By Dylan Irvin for Dr. Joshua King's ENG 2301: British Literature class, Fall 2025
This reflection is part of a series of “Tree Stories” by Baylor students that take root in their observations about a tree on campus, branch into connections between their tree and their experiences and education, and leaf out into a creative response to the tree.
Welcome
This reflection touches on a tree that I have observed over the past semester. I chose this tree because it is centrally located on campus and is somewhere that I often used to frequent. This tree has had half of its limbs cut off and this stuck out to me because I was able to relate it to a lot of the literature we reviewed this semester. This is why I chose to capture my tree in a painting to highlight the aspects that stuck out to me and portray it in a way that I can express that for everyone.
Roots
The tree that I chose is a live oak which is a common tree found throughout the south. It is part of the Quercus genus family, and it has played a role in the construction of this country. It is a very durable wood, and it was often used for shipbuilding in the late 1800’s as well as into the 1900’s. It is located in the Vara Martin Daniel Plaza which is centrally located on campus right next to fountain mall. I used to walk through this area almost on a daily basis as a tour guide and that is what attracted me to this area to find a tree. This tree stuck out to me in particular because half of its limps have been cut off and it is very evident. Every tree almost appears perfectly sculpted into the plaza and for this reason the tree I chose sticks out like a sore thumb. It still fits a purpose and provides a large amount of shade for students to sit under, but it is clearly bare on one side. I believe this was done so that you can look at the Immortal Ten Monument from one side of the plaza to the other without the tree interfering, but this does a lot of damage to the trees image. As much as I like the Immortal ten Monument and understand its importance I still think it’s sad what has been done to this tree. This harm will not go without its purpose though as it has allowed me to make a lot of reflections on the literature our class centered around throughout the semester.
Branches
During the course of the semester I had one observation period that stuck out to me the most and I can vividly remember. I had spent the day on campus and it was getting later in the afternoon so the sun was starting to slowly make its way below the horizon. I sat down in front of my tree and I was finding an area to take a photo to include with my second tree reflection. While circling around the tree I eventually rested in a spot where I was looking at the tree with the immortal ten monument and Pat Neff Hall in the background. The image I saw I can still picture to this day. The tree appeared almost split in half as the angle I was looking at clearly displayed its complete side along with the side that was bare of any limbs. Sitting below the complete side was a student doing homework and the sun set in the background behind the tree. This image perfectly represented what I wanted to portray about my tree and is why I have chosen to try and recreate this image in a painting. As we continued reviewing different pieces of literature throughout class I found that "No Ordinary Sun" by Hone Tuwhare embodied what I felt my tree’s story was in a form of literature. This poem describes a scene where a tree is coming to its demise at the hands of a nuclear blast. This poem stuck out to me for how Tuwhare is able to personify the tree so well. He makes the reader feel emotion for the tree as its existence comes to an end at the hands of an outside force that is of nothing nature has ever produced. He says that the tree will “No more incline a differential head to the winds talk, or stir to the tickle of coursing rain” (Tuwhare). This personification makes you feel for the tree as nothing could ever prepare it for the sun (nuclear blast) that it is about to experience. I related this to my tree because it has also become a victim of human intervention that has caused irreversible damage.
Leaves
Introduction
Both the poem and my tree fell to the hands of human intervention when if left to their own accord would both be alive and flourishing. I believe though that both trees still serve a purpose and their suffering was not in vein. The tree in the poem will die and decompose which could help fertilize the soil beneath it while the tree in the plaza still provides half of its shade to awaiting students. It is for that reason that I chose to make this painting and represent the beauty of this tree in its damaged state. I chose an angle to paint my tree from that represents both the trees place in the plaza as well as its surroundings and how it draws on the space it is in to provide something to those that walk beneath it. This painting relates to the poem and although it doesn’t display the same image painted by Tuwhare it still represents the message of the poem. I hope that by putting this story on the website it will provide insights to others that visit and allow them to understand the harm that we can do to nature.
Creative Response
Works Cited
Tuwhare, Hone. No Ordinary Sun.