The speaker is a meditative and reflective adult who observes a natural scene and imagines the cause of the bent birch trees. He feels weary of the adult world and its many considerations, yearning for the temporary escape and dynamic balance of his youth. Despite his weariness, he maintains a deep affection for the physical world, seeing Earth as the right place for love, and has no desire to permanently leave it.

The boy is a solitary rural child who lives too far from town to learn baseball, so he invents his own play in nature. He spends his time repeatedly riding down his father's birch trees until they lose their stiffness. He approaches his activity with immense care, skill, and poise, learning exactly how to balance and when to launch himself back to the ground.

The father is the unseen owner of the land and the birch trees that the boy rides down. He does not physically appear in the poem's action but represents the family structure surrounding the solitary boy.