English Semester – II

 

Poem – unit – I

 

Felling of the Bunyan Tree

-        Dilip Chitre

 

Q) What is the attitude of the speaker towards the cutting down of the Bunyan tree? What lines and words in the poem reveal this?

 

A) The Poem “the felling of a Bunyan Tree” was written by Dilip Chitre. He was a famous Marathi Writer, Teacher, painter, and Magazine Columnist. He translated Marathi poems into English. He wrote a book in English titled “Travelling in a cage”. The present Poem was published in his English Book.

 According to the Poem, The Poet’s father asked the tenants to vacate their rooms to demolish the old houses one after the other in their locality. The people who were appointed to demolish the houses came to the poet’s place after the demolition of the neighbouring houses. They found huge trees in the Poet’s house. They realised that the trees are to be felled first to erase the old house of the Poet’s family. Grand Mother did not like the work of the demolition. She conveyed the message to the poet’s father that the trees are holy and they should not be touched. She also stated that the felling of the trees would be treated as crime because she knows the advantages of the trees in the society properly.

Poet’s father did not believe in the advantages of the trees in the society. He was adamant in his decision. He mercilessly ordered the people to massacre the old trees in the house. They made Sheoga, odumber and Neem trees to fall in one day. They found the felling of Bunyan tree to be difficult because it was grown all most all three times taller than the poet’s house. The aerial roots of the Bunyan tree were scraggly and they fell on the ground almost all 30 feet from the branches. The aerial roots penetrated deep into the ground and became into trees around the main Bunyan Tree.

It took seven days for the men to cut the branches and the aerial roots of the Bunyan tree. All the insects and birds which lived in the tree left the place in search of another tree in that locality. The trunk of the tree was 50 feet in circumference. Fifty men were appointed to cut the trunk with axes. The poet observed the slaughter of the tree with terror and fascination. After the tree was completely cut, the poet’s family went to Bombay from Baroda. The poet found the huge buildings in the place of the trees in the Bombay city. He remembered the aerial roots and how they tried to strike the ground in a seething manner in the fully developed city.

The present poem has three stanzas. It is written in four verses with no regular rhyme scheme. The poem has the central theme of the clash of ideas between the patriarchal versus matriarchal. In the patriarchal ideas, one can find father as a dominating, forward looking and destructive person, where as the Grand Mother was understood as a traditional lady who focused on religion, conservation, nurture etc. The Poem is written in conservative style. It has the tone of anger tinged with slight sadness at the thought of the tree being cut down. The phrase Bunyan tree is used metaphorically to represent the speaker’s family history. The poet was not happy to leave the house. He was also not interested in the felling of the tree. Words like Massacre, Slaughter, Seething, etc reveal the negative attitude of the poet towards his father’s decision. He also wanted the tree to be there in the society just like his Grand Mother.