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Question
Why do you think the poet describes the act of cutting a tree? What effect does it have on you as a reader?
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Solution 1
The killing of a tree – a cruel act – tree intends to live-even plants expand its species-man is a killer-very unkind towards trees-too selfish-destroys nature – a murder eventually-similar to killing a man-tree dies with its root cut-man dies with his heart attack.
Solution 2
The poet is a physician. He considers the act of killing of a tree as an evil act. He is of the view that it is nothing but murder. The woodcutter tries to cut down the tree. He cuts the trunk of the tree. Even after felling the tree, it can sprout from the bottom-most part of the trunk. Thus the effort is to be made to uproot it. Unless the anchored root is cut off and removed from the earth, killing is not complete.
The root is brought out to dry it in the sun and the air. The poet compares it to the killing of a man. The root is compared to the heart of a man. Every life is finished when the heart stops functioning. As the heart circulates the blood in the body, the root does the work of supplying water to every part of the tree. The reader is getting an awareness that he or
she should not indulge in the evil or cruel act of killing a tree that can live for a long time. It gives the realization that the killing of a tree and a man are one and the same. So every reader will stand against this cruelty and join hands for planting and growing trees.
Solution 3
The killing of a tree is a cruel act. The poet has made us realize that the felling of a tree is killing it. The word “Killing” is very effectively and earnestly used in this poem. Being a physician, the poet has dealt with the life and death of the tree. A man dies when the heart is affected. Similarly, a tree becomes lifeless only when its root is removed from the earth. The root of a tree is compared to the heart of a man.
The poem teaches a lesson to the readers that we must not be cruel towards any living thing, either a tree or man. Killing a tree is synonymous with murdering a man. Thus it is clear that the poet wants the readers to be kind to mankind. As readers, we must feel the pain inflicted on others by every one of our cruel acts through our word and deed.
“Let us not fell the trees before they fall”
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