The Trees
Thinking About the Poem
1. Find three things in the first stanza that cannot happen in a treeless forest.
Answer: In a treeless forest:
- No bird can sit on the trees.
- No insect can hide among the branches.
- The sun cannot bury its feet in the forest’s shadow.
These images show how lifeless and empty a forest becomes when there are no trees.
2. What picture do the words “sun bury its feet in shadow” create? What do the sun’s “feet” mean?
Answer: The expression creates the image of sunlight reaching the forest floor through the trees and becoming partly hidden by their shadows.
The sun’s “feet” refer to its rays. When trees are present, their leaves and branches create shade, so the rays seem to disappear into the shadows.
3. Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, leaves and twigs do?
Answer: The trees are confined inside the poet’s house and are trying to move out into the forest.
- Their roots work all night to free themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor.
- Their leaves strain towards the glass as if trying to reach the open air.
- Their twigs become stiff with the effort of breaking free.
These actions show the trees’ strong desire for freedom.
4. What does the poet compare the branches of the trees to?
Answer: The poet compares the branches to newly discharged patients who are weak and half-dazed as they move out of a hospital.
The comparison suggests that the branches have been confined for a long time and are slowly moving towards freedom.
5. How does the poet describe the moon at the beginning of the third stanza?
Answer: At the beginning, the moon is described as whole and shining brightly in the fresh night sky.
6. How does the moon appear at the end of the poem? What causes this change?
Answer: At the end, the moon appears to be broken into pieces like a shattered mirror.
This happens because the branches of the moving trees partly cover the moon. Its light is seen through the gaps in the branches, making it appear fragmented.
7. What happens to the house when the trees move out?
Answer: As the trees move out, the glass panes are affected and the smell of leaves and lichen reaches the rooms. The wind rushes in to meet the trees.
The house gradually becomes empty of the natural life that had been confined inside it.
8. Why does the poet not mention the departure of the forest from the house in her letters?
Answer: The poet continues writing letters without mentioning the extraordinary event taking place around her.
This may suggest that people often remain silent about important or unexpected events. It can also imply that humans have become so disconnected from nature that they fail to recognise the significance of nature trying to regain its freedom.
9. Does the poem present a conflict between man and nature? Compare it with “A Tiger in the Zoo”.
Answer: Yes. The poem presents a conflict between human control and the natural desire for freedom.
In “The Trees”, nature has been confined inside a house while the actual forest outside has become empty. The trees struggle to return to their natural home.
Similarly, in “A Tiger in the Zoo”, a powerful wild animal is trapped inside a cage instead of living freely in the jungle.
Both poems criticise the human tendency to control nature and show that living beings belong in their natural surroundings.
10. If the trees are taken as a metaphor for human beings, what new meaning does the poem convey?
Answer: If the trees represent human beings, the poem becomes a symbol of people struggling against restrictions and confinement.
The movement of the trees towards the forest can represent a human desire for freedom, independence and a more natural life. It suggests that people cannot remain suppressed forever and will eventually try to break free from whatever limits them.
11. Compare “The Trees” with “On Killing a Tree”.
Answer: Both poems focus on trees and the relationship between humans and nature.
In “The Trees”, the trees are shown struggling to escape human confinement and return to the forest. The poem emphasises freedom and nature’s resistance to control.
In “On Killing a Tree”, the poet shows the strength and persistence of a tree and explains that destroying it completely is not easy.
Both poems remind us that trees are living and powerful parts of nature and criticise human actions that harm or restrict them.
Additional Questions and Answers
12. Why can no bird sit and no insect hide in the forest?
Answer: The forest is empty because the trees have been removed from it. Without trees, birds have no branches to sit on and insects have no leaves or branches in which to hide.
13. What is the poet doing in the poem? Where is she?
Answer: The poet is sitting inside her house with the doors opening towards the veranda. She is writing long letters while observing the movement of the trees.
14. Why do the trees want to move out?
Answer: The trees want to move out because they are confined inside the house, away from their natural environment.
They struggle to escape so that they can return to the forest, where they truly belong and can grow freely.
15. What is the actual home of the trees according to the poem?
Answer: The forest is the natural and proper home of the trees.
16. What does “to disengage themselves” mean?
Answer: It means to free or separate themselves from something that is holding them back.
In the poem, the roots try to free themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor.
17. Why are the twigs described as “stiff with exertion”?
Answer: The twigs are making a great effort to break free and move outside. Their stiffness reflects the physical strain involved in escaping confinement.
18. What does the movement of the roots suggest?
Answer: The roots struggling to free themselves suggest the trees’ determination to escape from confinement.
Symbolically, they represent a strong desire for freedom.
19. What does the empty forest symbolise?
Answer: The empty forest symbolises the damage caused when nature is removed from its proper environment.
It also represents the unnatural result of human interference with nature.
20. What does the movement of the trees towards the forest symbolise?
Answer: It symbolises a movement from captivity to freedom.
It may also represent nature reclaiming its rightful place and resisting human control.
21. Why does the poet describe the trees as if they were human beings?
Answer: The poet gives human qualities to the trees to make their struggle for freedom more vivid.
The roots work, the leaves strain and the branches move like tired patients. This personification helps readers understand the trees as living beings with a strong desire to be free.
22. What is the central idea of “The Trees”?
Answer: The central idea of the poem is the desire of nature for freedom.
The trees, confined inside a house, struggle to return to the forest. Through this imaginative situation, the poet highlights the conflict between human control and the natural world.
The poem suggests that nature cannot be permanently confined and will always seek to return to its natural state.
23. What message does the poem give?
Answer: The poem gives the message that human beings should respect nature and allow it to exist freely in its natural environment.
Nature should not be destroyed outside and then kept artificially inside merely for decoration.
Long Answer Questions
24. Describe the struggle of the trees to escape from the house.
Answer: The trees have been confined inside the house, but during the night they begin a determined movement towards the forest.
Their roots work continuously to free themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor. Their leaves press towards the glass, while their twigs become stiff with effort.
The branches move slowly like patients who have just been discharged from a hospital. Eventually, the trees move outside, their branches entering the open night.
The whole scene symbolises nature’s powerful desire for freedom and its refusal to remain permanently imprisoned by human beings.
25. How does Adrienne Rich contrast the house and the forest in the poem?
Answer: The house represents confinement, artificiality and human control. The trees are trapped inside it, and their roots, leaves and branches struggle to escape.
The forest, on the other hand, represents freedom and the natural environment of the trees. At first, it is empty because the trees are inside the house.
As the trees move out, the forest becomes complete again. Through this contrast, the poet emphasises that nature belongs in open and natural surroundings rather than in artificial confinement.
26. Explain how the poem is about freedom.
Answer: Freedom is one of the major themes of “The Trees”. The trees are shown as living beings imprisoned inside a house and desperately trying to escape.
Their roots struggle, leaves strain and branches push towards the outside world. The movement from the house to the forest symbolises liberation from restriction.
The poem can also be interpreted more broadly as representing any individual or group struggling against limitations and seeking independence.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Who is the poet of “The Trees”?
(a) Robert Frost
(b) Adrienne Rich
(c) Leslie Norris
(d) Carolyn Wells
Answer: (b) Adrienne Rich
2. Where are the trees at the beginning of the poem?
(a) In the forest
(b) Inside the house
(c) Near a river
(d) On a mountain
Answer: (b) Inside the house
3. Where do the trees want to go?
(a) To a garden
(b) To another house
(c) To the forest
(d) To a field
Answer: (c) To the forest
4. What are the roots trying to do?
(a) Grow deeper
(b) Free themselves from the cracks
(c) Find water
(d) Enter another room
Answer: (b) Free themselves from the cracks
5. The leaves strain towards—
(a) the roof
(b) the glass
(c) the floor
(d) the veranda
Answer: (b) The glass
6. “To disengage themselves” means—
(a) to collect themselves
(b) to describe themselves
(c) to free themselves
(d) to hide themselves
Answer: (c) To free themselves
7. The branches are compared to—
(a) sleeping birds
(b) newly discharged patients
(c) soldiers
(d) children
Answer: (b) Newly discharged patients
8. Why can no bird sit in the forest?
(a) It is night
(b) There are no trees
(c) There is a storm
(d) The birds are sleeping
Answer: (b) There are no trees
9. What cannot hide in the empty forest?
(a) Tigers
(b) Insects
(c) Deer
(d) Birds
Answer: (b) Insects
10. The “feet” of the sun refer to—
(a) clouds
(b) rays of sunlight
(c) stars
(d) shadows
Answer: (b) Rays of sunlight
11. What is the poet doing while the trees are moving out?
(a) Sleeping
(b) Reading a book
(c) Writing long letters
(d) Watching television
Answer: (c) Writing long letters
12. What rushes out to meet the trees?
(a) Fire
(b) Wind
(c) Rain
(d) People
Answer: (b) Wind
13. What will the forest be full of by morning?
(a) Rain
(b) Animals
(c) Trees
(d) Birds only
Answer: (c) Trees
14. At the end, the moon looks like—
(a) a bright lamp
(b) a broken mirror
(c) a shining coin
(d) a piece of glass
Answer: (b) A broken mirror
15. The pieces of the moon appear in the crown of the—
(a) hemlock tree
(b) mango tree
(c) tallest oak
(d) pine tree
Answer: (c) Tallest oak
16. What causes the moon to appear broken?
(a) Clouds
(b) Moving tree branches
(c) Rain
(d) Darkness
Answer: (b) Moving tree branches
17. What is the natural home of the trees?
(a) House
(b) Forest
(c) School
(d) City
Answer: (b) Forest
18. The main theme of the poem is—
(a) adventure
(b) freedom of nature
(c) friendship
(d) childhood
Answer: (b) Freedom of nature
19. The movement of the trees from the house to the forest represents—
(a) captivity
(b) freedom
(c) weakness
(d) sleep
Answer: (b) Freedom
20. Which figure of speech is strongly used when trees are shown acting like humans?
(a) Personification
(b) Pun
(c) Irony
(d) Hyperbole
Answer: (a) Personification
21. “The branches become like newly discharged patients” is an example of—
(a) simile
(b) metaphor
(c) alliteration
(d) irony
Answer: (a) Simile
22. The poem mainly presents a conflict between—
(a) rich and poor
(b) humans and nature
(c) animals and birds
(d) city and village people
Answer: (b) Humans and nature
23. Adrienne Rich was born in—
(a) 1919
(b) 1929
(c) 1939
(d) 1949
Answer: (b) 1929
Teacher Generate Question Answer
Questions I
Q.1. Find in the first stanza three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest.
Ans: The three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest are:
Birds cannot sit on trees.
Insects cannot hide in the branches.
The sun cannot bury its feet in the forest’s shadow.
Q.2. 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?
Ans: These words create the image of sunlight filtering through trees and forming shadows on the ground. The “sun’s feet” refer to the sun’s rays. In a forest, these rays are partially hidden by shadows, giving the impression that the sun is burying its feet in them. Without trees, sunlight would fall directly on the ground without any shade.
Questions II
Q.1. Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, leaves, and twigs do?
Ans: In the poem, the trees are confined inside the poet’s house.
Their roots struggle all night to break free from the cracks in the veranda floor.
Their leaves press against the glass, trying to move towards the outside light.
Their twigs become stiff due to the effort of escaping.
Q.2. What does the poet compare their branches to?
Ans: The poet compares the branches to patients who have just been discharged from a hospital. As they move out, they appear weak, unsteady, and hesitant, like patients stepping into the outside world after a long confinement.
Questions III
Q.1. How does the poet describe the moon:
(a) At the beginning of the third stanza?
Ans: The poet describes the moon as whole and bright, shining clearly in the open sky.
(b) At the end of the stanza? What causes this change?
Ans: At the end, the moon appears broken into pieces like a shattered mirror. This change happens because the moving tree branches partially block the moonlight, making it appear fragmented.
Q.2. What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
Ans: When the trees move out, the glass panes break, and the soft whispers of the trees disappear. The house becomes silent and empty.
Q.3. Why does the poet not mention “the departure of the forest from the house” in her letter?
Ans: The poet does not mention it because people generally ignore nature and its struggles. She feels that others may not understand or appreciate the significance of the trees returning to their natural environment.
Questions IV
Q.1. Does the poem present a conflict between man and nature? Compare it with A Tiger in the Zoo.
Ans: Yes, the poem presents a conflict between humans and nature. Humans confine trees for decoration while destroying forests. This restricts their natural freedom. Similarly, in A Tiger in the Zoo, the tiger is kept in a cage and longs for freedom in the wild. Both poems highlight the suffering caused by restricting natural beings.
Q.2. If trees are seen as a metaphor for human beings, what new meaning does the poem convey?
Ans: If trees represent humans, the poem suggests that people also feel trapped in the limits of modern life. Despite material comforts, they long for freedom, peace, and a connection with nature. It reflects a desire to break free from restrictions and live a more natural and meaningful life.
এই Post টো Update কৰাত সহায় কৰিব বিচাৰে নেকি?
ইয়াত কিবা ভুল, অসম্পূৰ্ণ তথ্য বা নতুন তথ্য থাকিলে আপুনি এটা উন্নত version প্ৰস্তুত কৰিব পাৰে। Live Post তৎক্ষণাৎ সলনি নহ'ব।
Update This Post