Our casuarina tree

The poem "Our Casuarina Tree" is from Dutt's Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (1882). It is one of Dutt's most famous poems

1. Our Casuarina Tree Poem by Toru Dutt Prepared by Anju A

2. About Toru Dutt Toru Dutt , despite having a short life, made her poetry to live long as a testimony of her literary credentials. Toru Dutt , born on March 4, 1856, was a poet, novelist, essayist, translator, and the first Indian poetess to write in French and English. She contributed regularly to the ‘Poet’s Corner’ of  The Bengal Magazine  and  The Calcutta Review , publishing a series of English translations of French poetry between March 1874 and March 1877 . Although she died at the tender age of 21, in 1876, she has produced an impressive collection of poetry and prose within the short period of life.

3. Our Casuarina Tree Poem by Toru Dutt LIKE a huge Python, winding round and round The rugged trunk, indented deep with scars, Up to its very summit near the stars, A creeper climbs, in whose embraces bound No other tree could live. But gallantly The giant wears the scarf, and flowers are hung In crimson clusters all the boughs among, Whereon all day are gathered bird and bee; And oft at nights the garden overflows With one sweet song that seems to have no close, Sung darkling from our tree, while men repose.

4. Stanza One The poem is an ode to the Casuarina tree that the poetess had in her garden back in her motherland. The memory of the tree is the only link she has left with her past and the cheerfulness of her formative years. The first stanza describes the tree having rough skin and being garlanded by a vine having flowers. It rings around the trunk like a snake. This describes the strength and courage of the tree which is still standing tall . The tree seems to symbolize vitality which is transmitted to the flowers which attract bees and birds to the tree. The whole scene is of a harmonious whole with each part being inextricably linked to the tree.

5. Stanza One The first stanza of  ‘Our Casuarina Tree’  begins with the image of the tree. The poet remembers the tree being wound by a creeper like a python. Its hold was too tight for it had left the scar on the trunk. The poet further states that no other tree would have sustained this hold, for it is too strong, but her tree did. Also, the ‘giant,’ the tree has proudly worn those ‘scars’ like a ‘scarf’, representing its strength. To further describe its strength, the poet says it is filled with crimson flowers in every bough like a crown that invited birds and bees . Often at night when the poet could not sleep she used to listen to the music that filled her garden as if it has no end.

6. Our Casuarina Tree Poem by Toru Dutt When first my casement is wide open thrown At dawn, my eyes delighted on it rest; Sometimes, and most in winter,—on its crest A gray baboon sits statue-like alone Watching the sunrise; while on lower boughs His puny offspring leap about and play; And far and near kokilas hail the day; And to their pastures wend our sleepy cows; And in the shadow, on the broad tank cast By that hoar tree, so beautiful and vast, The water-lilies spring, like snow enmassed .

7. Stanza Two In the second stanza, new animals like baboon and birds are introduced that extol the beauty and nourishing nature of the tree . Even the tree’s shadow provides refuge to the lazy cattle around and flowering lilies in the water tank . The second stanza of  ‘Our Casuarina Tree’  details the experiences of dawn which delighted the poet. Every morning, as she opens her window, her eyes rest on the tree and ‘delighted.’ She presents the picture of the changing scene with seasons.

8. Stanza Two Sometimes during other seasons, and mostly during winter, she has seen a baboon sitting on the top branch like a statue waiting to receive the first array of sunlight. Whereas, his ‘puny offspring’ plays around in the lower branch of the tree. Along with this scenic beauty, the poet also experienced the ‘ kokilas ’ welcoming note. She has also observed the cows guided towards the pastures and the water-lilies spring under the shadow of the hoar tree, like gathered snow.

9. Our Casuarina Tree Poem by Toru Dutt But not because of its magnificence Dear is the Casuarina to my soul: Beneath it we have played; though years may roll, O sweet companions, loved with love intense, For your sakes, shall the tree be ever dear. Blent with your images, it shall arise In memory, till the hot tears blind mine eyes! What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear Like the sea breaking on a shingle-beach? It is the tree’s lament, an eerie speech, That haply to the unknown land may reach.

10. Stanza Three In the third stanza, the  speaker  turns more subjective in the memory associated with the tree. She comments on why the tree will remain dear to her always. Besides the morning bliss, the tree reminds her of the time she played with her siblings . The tree, blended with the memory of them, gives her the images of the intense love they shared, leaving the poet in tears.   The poet mourns for those departed souls as she thinks down the memory lane. And, she imagines that the tree shares her lose which she hears as “dirge-like murmur” resembling the waves breaking on a pebble beach.

11. Our Casuarina Tree Poem by Toru Dutt Unknown, yet well-known to the eye of faith! Ah, I have heard that wail far, far away In distant lands, by many a sheltered bay, When slumbered in his cave the water-wraith And the waves gently kissed the classic shore Of France or Italy, beneath the moon, When earth lay trancèd in a dreamless swoon: And every time the music rose,—before Mine inner vision rose a form sublime, Thy form, O Tree, as in my happy prime I saw thee, in my own loved native clime.

12. Stanza Four In the fourth stanza, the poet presents an in-depth connection with the tree. Through the image of waves, she takes us to the foreign land which is “Unknown, yet well-known” where the “waves gently kissed the classic shore”. Whenever this music of the waves touching the waves rises, it arouses the memory of the tree in front of the poet’s eyes as she has seen in her youth.

13. Our Casuarina Tree Poem by Toru Dutt Therefore I fain would consecrate a lay Unto thy honor , Tree, beloved of those Who now in blessed sleep for aye repose,— Dearer than life to me, alas, were they! Mayst thou be numbered when my days are done With deathless trees—like those in Borrowdale , Under whose awful branches lingered pale “Fear, trembling Hope, and Death, the skeleton, And Time the shadow;” and though weak the verse That would thy beauty fain, oh, fain rehearse, May Love defend thee from Oblivion’s curse.

14. Stanza Five In the final stanza, the speaker wants to erect something in the honor of the casuarina tree. For those who were beloved, who are resting in peace, loved it. She wants the tree to live long like those trees of “ Borrowdale ” making a reference to Wordsworth’s “Yew-trees.”   Also , she makes an attempt to distinguish the trees of England from the Casuarina tree, connecting to her varying emotions. The Casuarina tree stands for nostalgia, longing, and memory, whereas the trees of England reflect her isolation. The final lines of the poem underscore the idea of a poem as a written memory. The poet seeks “Love” to protect the tree and her poem from time’s ravage.

15. Our Casuarina Tree Poem by Toru Dutt The poem "Our Casuarina Tree" is from Dutt's   Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan  (1882 ). It is one of Dutt's most famous poems, and it describes a tree near the speaker's home that she associates heavily with memories of her childhood and her siblings that have since died, "Who now in blessed sleep, for aye, repose .“ The word "our" in the title hints at this significance—it is not just an ordinary tree for the poet, but rather a part of her life and an integral part of her childhood that she shared with her siblings.

16. Our Casuarina Tree The poem's opening lines describe the grandeur of the Casuarina in minute detail, standing erect and wearing the "scarf" of the "creeper" that clutches it like "a huge python." The tree is a source of life, filled with "bird[s] and bee[s]," though the children who used to play under its branches are long gone. This liveliness that surrounds the tree is further detailed in the second stanza, which tells of a "baboon," " kokilas ," and "cows" in its vicinity.

17. Our Casuarina Tree Still, in the third stanza, the speaker tells us explicitly that it is "not because of its magnificence / [that] Dear is the Casuarina to my soul"—rather, it is because of her memories of her departed siblings. At the thought of their deaths and their past memories, even the tree seems to "lament" and ushers forth "an eerie speech." In the fourth stanza, the speaker recalls various foreign shores (namely, "France or Italy") where she heard noise similar to the tree's mournful sighs, and recalled the tree and her "own loved native clime."

18. Our Casuarina Tree As the poem closes, the speaker meditates on the "deathless trees" in " Borrowdale " that carry the same grim weight as those in William Wordsworth's poem on yew-trees, which she quotes: "Fear, trembling Hope, and Death, the skeleton, / And Time the shadow." By contrast, the speaker tells us, she yearns to return to the Casuarina tree of her youth, which she hopes will be saved "from Oblivion's curse."

19. Our Casuarina Tree In terms of its form, the poem consists of fifty-five lines, written in five stanzas of eleven lines each . Each stanza consists of an octave of two enclosed-rhyme quatrains, followed by a rhyming tercet (three lines which rhyme ). Its overall rhyme scheme is thus ABBACDDCEEE FGGFHIIHJJJ KLLKMNNMOOO PQQPRSSRTTT UVVUWXXWYYY.

20. Our Casuarina Tree The enclosed-rhyme octave of each stanza allows Dutt to develop a new line of thought in each stanza, while the rhyming tercet at the end of each stanza reinforces not only the constancy and finality of death, but also—because they evoke previous stanzas in their repetition—the echoes of the past that resurface through memory. Further, the fact that each stanza ends with a rhyming tercet rather than a rhyming couplet (two lines) gives the impression of overflow or transcendence, which mirrors the feelings that the speaker imparts to the Casuarina tree at the center of the poem.

21. Our Casuarina Tree The linkage of the speaker's personal life and emotional state to the natural world is not limited, however, to the Casuarina tree. For example, the birds and bees singing their "one sweet song" from the tree's branches provide solace to the poet through the night "while men repose," which suggests that the poet lies sleepless at night and can be soothed only by the rhythms of the natural world. The "grey baboon" in stanza 2, which sits "statue-like [and] alone" on top of the tree while "watching the sunrise," also reinforces this idea, suggesting that the poet too has watched in solitude as the sun rises the behind the Casuarina tree.

22. Our Casuarina Tree I n the third stanza, the speaker makes this linkage explicit as she explains that the tree's memory is " blent with [...] images" in her head of her departed siblings. The shared mourning of the speaker and the tree, as conveyed by the "dirge-like murmur" that resembles the waves breaking on a pebble beach, continues to reinforce this connection. In the fourth stanza, this image of the waves breaking carries us to foreign shores, where "waves gently [kiss] the classic shore" but evoke similar mourning in our speaker's mind. This is why, while the rest of the world "l[ ies ] trancèd in a dreamless swoon," the speaker stays awake as the music of her youth, the music of the tree, swims to her in her "inner vision."

23. Our Casuarina Tree In the final stanza, the speaker's care to distinguish the trees of England from the Casuarina tree of her youth further shows the way in which the speaker associates nature at large with her various emotions. While the Casuarina tree stands in for nostalgia, longing, and memory, the trees of England reflect isolation and "verse" that is not true to her own experiences . This final moment in the poem is also particularly interesting because it implicates the poet herself and the poem itself . The poet is hesitant about her gift of writing poetry, and she feels that her own words are "weak," but she appeals to "Love" in her plea for the tree to be protected from time's ravages.

24. Our Casuarina Tree This links the poem not only to Dutt's preoccupation with loss, the natural world, and the complexity of family relationships, but also to her interest in the nature of the poetic craft and how much of life's complexities can be accurately captured in a poetic format. This moment also lends itself to a larger interpretive discussion about how Dutt envisions the potency of one of her major poetic projects—that is, her choice to use English verse forms like those used by Wordsworth (who she simultaneously seems to respect and dismiss in the poem) to describe Indian scenes like those of the tree and her youth.

25. Poetic Devices in  Our Casuarina Tree The poem ‘ Our Casuarina Tree’  in itself is a symbolic representation of the poet’s memory associated with the Casuarina tree. Using the subjective pronoun in the title suggests the ‘subjective’ tone of the poem . In the first stanza, the poet’s description of the creeper’s stronghold on the tree, and the scare symbolically represent the impact of colonialism on Indian Culture and Philosophy. The poem uses rich imagery which presents in the description of the tree’s appearance, description of dawn, and the memory of her loved ones connected with it. The  metaphor used in the lines “The giant wears the scarf,” “trembling Hope,” and “Time the shadow” and the similes’  “”LIKE a huge Python,” “baboon sits statue-like alone,” and “The water-lilies spring, like snow enmassed ,” that add beauty to the poem and instates the poet’s feelings.