Take it to the Limit! (Of Language)

In Robert Hass's poem "The Problem of Describing Trees", the comfort of poetry as a guaranteed enchantress is pulled from us. In describing a view of a tree and its motions, he reaches a standstill in terms of what he can describe the tree doing. He says "And the tree danced.  No. The tree capitalized. No.  There are limits to saying, In language, what the tree did. It is good sometimes for poetry to disenchant us." In doing this, he pulls us out of the safety of his description of tree. The first "no" comes at us rather quickly, and jarringly, but then it seems to go back to the description. But, with the second "no" all hope of the enchantment is gone, and he drops the bomb "There are limits to saying, In language, what the tree did." and although we all know that there are some things that there are simply no sufficient words for, it is not common to be told that within a poem itself. Hass does something admirable in this poem, I believe, in bringing it to our attention that sometimes what is happening can't be described, even by one whose profession it is to describe. Although disenchanting, to say the least, Hass performs the important task of writing poetry that actually says something, and has a message.