On Killing A Tree Summary

ইংরাজি – দ্বাদশ শ্রেণি – On Killing A Tree

On Killing A Tree কবিতার কবি পরিচিতি

Gieve Patel (born on 18th August 1940) is an Indian poet and playwright. His first play was called ‘Princes,’ and it was performed in 1971. He was born and brought up in Mumbai and educated at Grant Medical School.
He briefly worked as a medical examiner in rural Gujarat before moving back to Mumbai. He currently resides in Mumbai and practices medicine. He is also a painter. As one of the contemporary Indian artists, he has been part of exhibitions around the world.

On Killing A Tree Summary

The poem depicts the endangered lives of the flora and fauna of earth which is falling constant prey of human needs. Relentless cutting down of trees can lead to a dire consequence on the earth and this has been criticize through this poetry.

On killing a Tree poem is an ultimatum from the poet to the readers where they are insisted not to harm the nature as it accelerates the threats of deforestation. Deforestation contributes majorly to the global warming.
As we go through the poem the poet describes the murderous rage with which a tree is cut. As a part of natural resources the life cycle of tree is shown as it sprouts from the seed through germination and slowly it matures into an adult tree feeding on water, sunlight and getting strongly nourished by the roots residing deep inside the soil which is also the source of their food.

দ্বাদশ শ্রেনি থেকে → বাংলা | ইংরাজি

The poem, overall, speaks to the fact that it is harder to kill and uproot a tree than “a simple jab of the knife.” In the end, slaughtering a tree is very difficult. One must pull the tree out by the roots, expose “the strength of the tree,” and allow the sun and the air to choke the life out of it. But nature has great regenerative power as human beings attain personal prejudices for their hunger as mentioned in the following lines;

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 leperous hide,

Soon the bleeding bark will heal, new leaves will appear from below and small boughs will revive into big branches:

The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,

But due to the cruelty and avarice of human the trees will not be allowed for reviving into new life .They make a deep cavity in the earth and hounds up the roots, the source of life and soul of the tree which are treasured inside Mother Earth for years.
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 poet’s visionary understanding of the pangs of the nature concludes when the tree is successfully assassinated; after much browning, hardening, twisting finally, the tree is converted to dead timber exposing the white and wet part which has been earthed for several years under the soil.
The poetry actually acts as a mirror of the debauchery act of human being where they can see their heinous acts and the poet expects that the repercussion may hit the right chord considering the alarming man-made situation.

The poem is a painful agitation for the sake of environment of the poet and through his writing he has sparked the environmental awareness in people’s mind.