The expatriates of the title function as a symbol in the poem. The trees are the setting for the central “moment” (Line 1) of the poem, but they are also symbols of the lovers themselves. The trees make up a “false New England forest” (Line 6), as they are “misplanted” (Line 7) with “synthetic / roots” (Lines 8-9). Because the trees do not actually belong in New England, the “forest [is only] whole” (Line 24) in the speaker’s dreams. The trees are the expatriates of the title, and they are stand-ins for the inner lives of the lovers in the poem. Like the trees, the lovers feel false and misplaced in their “single beds” (Line 20). The speaker lives “in [her] house” (Line 27) which is not the house of their lover.

While the Norwegian trees dominate the poem’s symbolic landscape, the poem is structurally unified by a visual motif of parallel lines. The poem’s liberal use of repetition emphasizes the parallel pattern, as echoed phrases make the lines of the poem appear parallel. Here is an example: “It was a moment / to clutch at or a moment,” (Lines 1-2) and “it was a time / butchered from time” (Lines 30-31).