Notes For All Chapters English Beehive Class 9
About the Poet
Gieve Patel is a famous Indian poet and playwright. Patel is also a practicing doctor. He was bom in Mumbai in 1940. He completed all his education from Mumbai. His first collection of poetry was entitled poems and was launched by Nisim Ezekiel in 1966. How Do You Withstand, Body and Mirrored Mirroring are some of his famous collections. He also wrote famous plays like—Princes, Savaska and Mr. Behram. He conducted a poetry workshop in Rishi Valley school for more than a decade. He also edited a collection of poetry which was published in 2006.
Central Idea of the Poem
In this poem, there is a beautiful ironic statement written by the poet about ‘Killing’ a tree. Actually, he means its opposite. He taunts how trees are to be ‘killed’ but they mustn’t. He further says that a tree is hard to kill with the knife. The tree takes years to grow from the earth. He says that to ‘kill’ a tree, its roots must be pulled out entirely from the soil. This poem also conveys a message that the trees are our lifeline. So they must not be killed. He instructs how a tree is ‘killed’. He gives out the message that trees are something pious and like human beings. He conveys that the tree is very deep rooted and cannot be wiped out easily. He indicates and compares it with the evil which also deep rooted in the surroundings and cannot be uprooted so easily without changing the environment.
Theme of the Poem
The poet considers the tree as a living organism. According to poet, it has the right to live like any other creatures. But the man is killing it with utmost cruelty and callousness. This poem indirectly gives out a strong idea that trees are our lifeline. So they mustn’t be killed. The poet instructs how a tree is ‘killed’. But actually he means its opposite. It implies that a person shall be a murderer if he ‘kills’ it this way. He says that a knife will not do harm to a tree. At last poet conveys that if the tree is killed, it must be uprooted completely. On stating this the poet taunts the people cutting the trees. The message in the end is that trees are something pious and like human beings. They are precious so they must not be cut. The poet also conveys that the tree is deep rooted and cannot be removed easily. He compared it with the evils which he thinks are deep rooted and cannot be removed easily.
Leave a Reply