As a child…

[Knot]

I'm still toying, though, with the idea of 'sorrow that hung LIKE a rope from the branches' - ie not the anthromorphised hanged man, but the hanging rope itself as a simile.

Understood, but isn't there a risk you lose the 'noose' aspect?

'sorrow that hung like a rope' - could be any old rope, something accidentally caught up in the branches (and hung like a noose doesn't sound quite right).

Sorrow that hung from the branches (might stretch the interpretation as far as Eve's apple)?

But, I think the line, as it stands, works best.

And why isn't this in Mild?

Best, Knot

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