NCERT Solutions Class 10 English (First Flight)
The NCERT Solutions in English Language for Class 10 English (First Flight) Poem – 8 The Trees has been provided here to help the students in solving the questions from this exercise.
Poem – 8 (The Trees)
The trees inside are moving out into the forest,
the forest that was empty all these days
where no bird could sit
no insect hide
no sun bury its feet in shadow
the forest that was empty all these nights
will be full of trees by morning.
All night the roots work
to disengage themselves from the cracks
in the veranda floor.
The leaves strain toward the glass
small twigs stiff with exertion
long-cramped boughs shuffling under the roof
like newly discharged patients
half-dazed, moving
to the clinic doors.
I sit inside, doors open to the veranda
writing long letters
in which I scarcely mention the departure
of the forest from the house.
The night is fresh, the whole moon shines
in a sky still open
the smell of leaves and lichen
still reaches like a voice into the rooms.
My head is full of whispers
which tomorrow will be silent.
Listen. The glass is breaking.
The trees are stumbling forward
into the night. Winds rush to meet them.
The moon is broken like a mirror,
its pieces flash now in the crown
of the tallest oak.
– ADRIENNE RICH
Thinking about the Poem
1.
(i) Find, in the first stanza, three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest.
Answer – The three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest are—the sitting of a bird on trees, the hiding of insects and the sun burying its feet in the shadow of the forest.
(ii) What picture do these words create in your mind: “….. sun bury its feet in shadow…..1′? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet’?
Answer – The picture is that of the sun. It is burying itself in the shadow. This is caused by the clouds. By the sun’s ‘feet’ the poet means the edge.
2.
(i) Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, their leaves and their twigs do?
Answer – The trees in the poem are in the pots and pans. Their roots spread to free themselves from the cracks in the veranda door. Their leaves go toward the glass. Small twigs stiffen the long-cramped boughs.
(ii) What does the poet compare their branches to?
Answer – The poet compares their branches to the newly discharged patients. Those patients are going towards the clinic doors. They have been discharged.
3.
(i) How does the poet describe the moon: (a) at the beginning of the third stanza, and (b) at its end? What causes this change?
Answer – At the beginning of the third stanza, the poet says that the full moon is shining in the open sky in the fresh night. At the end of the stanza, she describes that the moon breaks into pieces like a broken mirror and shines on the heads of the tallest oak trees. As the trees move outside, they cover some of the shine of the moon and it can be seen only in parts. This is why, it seems that the moon has broken into pieces.
(ii) What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
Answer – When the trees move out of the house, the glasses break and the whispers of the trees vanish, leaving the house silent.
(iii) Why do you think the poet does not mention “the departure of the forest from the house” in her letters? (Could it be that we are often silent about important happenings that are so unexpected that they embarrass us? Think about this again when you answer the next set of questions.)
Answer – The poet deliberately does not mention this because it is like the unexpected happening. It is common and is known to all.
4. Now that you have read the poem in detail, we can begin to ask what the poem might mean. Here are two suggestions. Can you think of others?
(i) Does the poem present a conflict between man and nature? Compare it with A Tiger in the Zoo. Is the poet suggesting that plants and trees, used for ‘interior decoration’ in cities while forests are cut down, are ‘imprisoned1, and need to ‘break out’?
Answer – The poem does present a conflict between man and nature. In fact, man has harmed nature much. He has cut forests and killed wild animals. He keeps wild animals in zoos as given in ‘A Tiger in the Zoo’. Yes, the plants and trees are really imprisoned. We must grow them naturally, not inside the houses.
(ii) On the other hand, Adrienne Rich has been known to use trees as a metaphor for human beings: this is a recurrent image in her poetry. What new meanings emerge from the poem if you take its trees to be symbolic of this particular meaning?
Answer – The new meanings are : men will multiply. They grow like the trees. These are kept in pots in houses. These trees break the house. So the human beings shall disturb the ecological balance of nature. At present this is the situation. Environmental pollution is its effect, Human survival is threatened. Global warming is there. Soon it will threaten human and other life. The danger, therefore, is real.
