XtraStudy Header

⁞ English - First Flight

NCERT Books ➤ Class 10 ➤

Class 10 English - First Flight Chapter The Trees [poem] Summary, Explanation, Question Answers (NCERT Solutions)

The Trees (The Trees [poem]) CBSE class 10 English - First Flight Chapter The Trees [poem] summary with detailed explanation of the lesson The Trees along with meanings of difficult words. Given here is the complete explanation of the lesson, along with summary, explanation and questions and answers of each topic of lesson The Trees [poem].

English - First Flight (Chapter The Trees [poem]) Solution
 Thinking About The Poem

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?
(ii) What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
(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 :


(i) In the beginning of the third stanza, the poet says that the whole moon is shining in the open sky in the fresh night. However, at the end of the stanza, she describes the moon as broken into many pieces such as a shattered mirror. This change is caused by the trees that have made their way from her home to outside. Their branches have risen into the sky, blocking the moon, which is why the moon seems to be broken into many pieces. These pieces can be seen flashing at the top of the tallest oak tree.

(ii) When the trees move out of the house, the glass gets broken and the smell of the leaves and lichens still reaches the rooms of the house.

(iii) The poet hardly mentions about “the departure of the forest from the house” in her letters because it is humans, who did not care for nature in the first place. So, maybe, the poet now thinks that nobody would be interested in knowing about the efforts that the trees are making in order to set themselves free. If other men cared about the trees, they would not have destroyed them. It seems that this whole beauty of trees moving back to forests can be seen and felt only by the poet.


All Questions of English - First Flight Chapter The Trees [poem]
Thinking About The Poem
1. (i) Find, in the first stanza, three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest.
(ii) What picture do these words create in your mind: “... sun bury its feet in shadow...”? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet’?
2. (i) Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, their leaves and their twigs do?
(ii) What does the poet compare their branches to?
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?
(ii) What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
(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.)
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 ‘imprisoned’, and need to ‘break out’?

(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?

5. You may read the poem 'On Killing a Tree' by Gieve Patel (Beehive - Textbook in English for Class IX. NCERT). Compare and contrast it with the poem you have just read.

Comments
Comments (0)


XtraStudy
Explore
Explore
About
App Link
xtrastudy android app
Others

Earn While You Learn
FAQ

Register Now

© 2022 Company, Inc. All rights reserved.