What is a point of view?

When writing novels with a first person point of view, the internal dialog usually belongs to the main character. The author shares the thoughts and internal feelings of the single character throughout the book. For example,

I climbed the stairs and looked into the first...

This poem was inspired by this tree which has suffered so much in its few years. It was cut down by a beaver, but survived and now has two main branches reaching for the heavens testifying to its perseverance. May we too become stronger through adversity.