On Killing a Tree
Stanza.. 1 ..
It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of the knife
Will do it. It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it, feeding
Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leprous hide
Sprouting leaves.
Explanation of Stanza 1 .. Felling a tree is not a tenuous, long-drawn operation. It takes minutes or a hour or two to cut it, But, can a tree be killed? The author explains this aspect in the following stanzas. A tree’s growth is a very slow process. Deriving nutrition from the soil, the air and the water, it grows very slowly and steadily.
Stanza 2 …
So hack and chop
But this alone wont do it.
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
To former size.
Explanation of Stanza .. . It’s difficult to take life out of a cut-down tree, because it has a huge capacity to regenerate itself. To really eliminate a tree from the face of earth, it takes great effort2. This is because, a felled tree has a capacity to spring back to life by growing fresh leaves and twigs that slowly become larger in size and become very visible. Its canopy will grow large regaining its lost spread and size. So, its not an easy job to kill a tree. has to be uprooted thoroughly.
Stanza 3 ..
No.
The root is to be pulled out —
Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out — snapped out
Or pulled out entirely,
Out from the earth-cave,
And the strength of the tree exposed
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden
For years inside the earth.
Explanation of Stanza 3.. To rob a tree of its life fully, one has to dig the soil to great depths, and then lift the underground part of the tree along with its network of roots to the surface of earth. This is a daunting operation. The roots spread in all directions to absorb water and nutrients from under the soil. The colour of the soil in the deep holes is different from the soil in thc surface. Its colour is white and it holds a lot of water with it.
Stanza 4 ..
Then the matter
Of scorching and choking
In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,
And then it is done.
Explanation for Stanza 4 .. To remove the left-over life in the uprooted giant tree, it has to be sun-dried to the extreme. The tree’s trunk begins to look brown, and it hardens. It begins to bend and warp. At this stage only, the tree gets killed permanently.
Thinking about the Poem
I.
1. Can a “simple jab of the knife” kill a tree? Why not?
Ans .. The tree has an unusual capacity to regrow and restore itself. Even the left over part, twigs, leaves etc. emerge and spread in all directions with the passage of time.
2. How has the tree grown to its full size? List the words suggestive of its life and activity.
Ans .. Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
To former size.
3. What is the meaning of “bleeding bark”? What makes it bleed?
Ans .. The fluid insde the body of the tree oozes out slowly. This is ‘bleeding of the bark’.
4. The poet says “No” in the beginning of the third stanza. What does he mean by this?
Ans .. It means, the tree is far from dead. It retians its life.
5. What is the meaning of “anchoring earth” and “earth cave”?
Ans .. It explains the way a tree steadies itself by growing deep into the soil.
6. What does he mean by “the strength of the tree exposed”?
Ans .. It points to the way a tree makes itself robust and relatively immune to fatal hacks.
7. What finally kills the tree?
Ans .. Prolonged exposure to scorching sun dehydrates the cut tree, and it loses its vitality to regenerate . This amounts to ‘killing’ of the tree.
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