The Tree Fell Down

OBJECTIVE TYPE QUESTIONS

 

Q1 Name the poet of the poem ‘The Tree Fell Down’.

Ans. The poet of the poem ‘The Tree Fell Down’ is P.V. Dhamija.

 

Q2 What does the tree symbolise in the poem ‘The Tree Fell Down’?

Ans. The tree symbolises long-standing serious national problems in the poem.

 

Q3 Where did the tree fall in P.V. Dhamija’s poem ‘The Tree Fell Down’?

Ans. The tree fell across the busy road.

 

Q4 What happened when the tree fell across the busy road?

Ans. It caused a heavy traffic jam.

 

Q5 What kind of warnings did the tree give in the beginning?

Ans. The tree gave feeble and gentle warnings in the beginning.

 

Q6 What is the crashing of the tree compared to?

Ans. It is compared to the crashing of a skyscraper in the earthquake.

 

Q7 Give the figure of speech used in the line – ‘Like a skyscraper in an earthquake!’

Ans. Simile

 

Q8 They’ve been gone now for hours. Who are ‘they’ in this line?

Ans. They are the concerned officials.

 

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

 

Q1. Can you think of the tree as a symbol? What does it symbolise?

Ans. P.V. Dhamija uses a tree as a symbol of serious national problems. They need immediate attention, but the government and the officials remain indifferent to them till they go out of hand and totally paralyse the life of the nation.

 

Q2 Why did none bother about the tree’s bristly warnings?

Ans. The tree gave its bristly warnings in a feeble and gentle way. But they were taken as ‘playful pokings’. No one thought that these warnings could increase to an extent where the tree would fall and block the road in a big way.

 

Q3 How did the tree convey its ‘warnings’?

Ans. The tree stood leaning above the road for many years. Its bristles often pricked the people passing close-by. But no one paid any attention to its gentle warnings. At last, the tree lost its natural balance and stood unsafely above the road. It brushed against many vehicles which passed by and sometimes caused minor damages also. This is how it gave its ‘warnings ’.

 

Q4. What led to the crashing down of the tree?

Ans. As the time passed, the tree lost its natural balance and stood unsafely above the road. With time, its stem became more diseased. It was no longer able to support itself. One day, it came crashing down like a very tall building crashes in an earthquake and blocked the traffic on the road.

 

Q5. Who have been gone ‘for hours’? When are they expected to come back?

Ans. The concerned officials have been gone ‘for hours’ to get their cranes to remove the giant tree and clear the road. The common people don’t expect them to come back soon because they are well- acquainted with their habit of delaying things even in the state of emergency. So, they keep waiting for them patiently.

 

Q6. What is the sting in the last line of the poem?

Ans. The last line is a bitter remark on the lazy and indifferent attitude of the government and the officials towards the problems faced by common men. People have got used to the habit of delaying things by the government and the bureaucracy. They keep suffering and waiting but do nothing to solve their problems. 

ABOUT THE POET - P.V. DHAMIJA

. A specialist in Phonetics and Spoken English

. Ph.D. in Linguistics and Phonetics

. Ph.D. in English Literature

. Former Professor, Department of Phonetics and Spoken English, Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad.

. Creative writer in English, Hindi and Urdu; composed poetry in Urdu and English

. Authored 12 books and published several articles on Phonetics and Spoken English; published a novel Love and Lust; a collection of poems: Cracks In The Wall

 

The Tree Fell Down

(P.V. Dhamija)

 

The tree fell down

Across the busy road,

And blocked the traffic in a big way;

It was so tall and old. 4

 

That it could have been an oak;

Its skin was like a crocodile’s,

And leaves, pale and crisp like wafers.

It lay sprawled on the road now

Like a crowd of rasta-roko hirelings. 8

 

For years it had stood leaning above the road. None bothered about its bristly warnings,

Which often well so feeble and gentle

That they must have been taken as playful pokings. 12

 

It lost its natural poise,

Precariously balanced now,

It brushed against and bruised

Numerous vehicles running past it. 16

 

Time passed, month after month,

It could no longer support itself

On its shaking tubercular stem. And came crashing down. 20

 

Like a skyscraper in an earthquake!

They’ve been gone now for hours

To fetch their massive cranes

To remove the monster from the way

The traffic can wait, patiently. 24

 

GLOSSARY AND NOTES

 

WORD              MEANING

Satire            mockery, ridicule

Procrastination   postponement, delay, putting off

Bureaucrats       officials, officers, administrators, public servants

Paralysed         made powerless and unable to function, blocked

Crisp             crunchy, breakable (e.g. crisp potato chips)

Wafers            very thin light biscuits

Sprawled          sitting or lying with legs and arms spread out in a relaxed way

Hirelings         people who are willing to do anything or work for anyone if they are paid

Bristles          hair, needles, thorns, prickles

Bristly           Prickly, sharp

Feeble            weak, delicate, dim

Poking            pushing, jab

Poise Self        control, balance

Precariously      unsafely, dangerously

Bruised           injured, damaged, hurt

Numerous          Many, several

Tubercular       stem diseased stem

Skyscraper       multi-storey building

Massive          huge, gigantic

Crane            a huge machine for carrying heavy loads

Monster          giant, huge

 

EXPLANATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT

 

The tree fell down

Across the busy road,

And blocked the traffic in a big way;

It was so tall and old. 4

 

That it could have been an oak;

Its skin was like a crocodile’s,

And leaves, pale and crisp like wafers.

It lay sprawled on the road now

Like a crowd of rasta-roko hirelings. 8

Reference to the context: These lines have been taken from the poem ‘The Tree Fell Down’ written by P.V. Dhamija. The poem is a satire on the lazy and indifferent attitude of our government towards the serious national problems. The poet uses the tree as a symbol of these long-standing national problems. (Lines 1 – 8)

Explanation: In these lines, the poet says that a tree fell across the busy road. It caused a heavy traffic jam. The tree was so tall and old that it looked like an oak. Its skin had become hard and rough like that of a crocodile. The leaves had become pale and papery. The branches of the tree spread out on the road and stopped the movement of traffic like the hired workers of the rasta-roko movement. The tall and old tree in the poem is a symbol of big national problems which have not been attended for long.

 

EXPLANATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT

 

For years it had stood leaning above the road. None bothered about its bristly warnings,

Which often well so feeble and gentle

That they must have been taken as playful pokings. 12

 

It lost its natural poise,

Precariously balanced now,

It brushed against and bruised

Numerous vehicles running past it. 16

(Lines 9-16)

Explanation: In these lines, the poet says that the tree stood leaning above the road for many years. It was gradually losing its strength. Its bristles often pricked the people passing close-by. None paid any attention to the dim and gentle warnings of the leaning tree. They were just taken as ‘playful pushing’s. The leaning tree symbolises the big national problems which had been put off for a long time. They could get out of control anytime now if not paid immediate attention. At last, the tree lost its natural balance and stood unsafely above the road. It brushed against many vehicles which passed by and sometimes caused minor damages also. The disbalanced state of the tree depicts that the ignored national problems have gone out of hand and paralysed the working of the nation.

 

EXPLANATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT

 

Time passed, month after month,

It could no longer support itself

On its shaking tubercular stem. And came crashing down. 20

Like a skyscraper in an earthquake!

They’ve been gone now for hours

To fetch their massive cranes

To remove the monster from the way

The traffic can wait, patiently. 24

 

(LINES 17 – 24)

 

Explanation: As the time passed, the stem of the tree became more diseased. It was no longer able to support itself. One day, it came crashing down like a tall building crashes in an earthquake and caused a heavy traffic jam. The sad situation of the tree reflects the sad condition of our country which is infested with serious national problems like poverty, unemployment, corruption. The government and the concerned officers remain indifferent to these problems till they go out of hand and block the life of our country. The fallen tree made the movement of traffic impossible. The concerned officials went to get their huge cranes to remove the giant tree and clear the road. The public was waiting for them to reach. But even in this state of emergency, they were in no hurry. They were sure that the public would wait patiently for the road to clear. The last stanza is a bitter satire on the culture of procrastination in our country. People have got used to the habit of delaying by the government and the bureaucracy. They keep suffering and waiting but do nothing to solve their problems. The lazy and insensitive leaders and the officials are always found absent in the state of emergency which has arisen due to them only.

 

CENTRAL IDEA OF THE POEM

 

The poem ‘The Tree Fell Down’ written by P.V. Dhamija is a bitter satire on the indifferent attitude of the government and its officials towards the serious problems faced by the common people. The poet uses the tree as a symbol of these long - standing national problems. The diseased tree gives many warnings before falling but no one takes them seriously. One day, it falls across the road and completely blocks the movement of traffic. Similarly, the government pays no attention to the big national problems. With the passage of time, they go out of hand and paralyses the life of the country. The common people suffer while the government keeps postponing issues.

 

SUMMARY/SUBSTANCE/DEVLOPMENT OF IDEA

 

The poem ‘The Tree Fell Down’ written by P.V. Dhamija is a bitter satire on the culture of procrastination (habit of postponing matters) in our country which is making our country powerless. A tree which looked like an oak fell across the busy road. It caused a heavy traffic jam. Its skin had become hard and rough like that of a crocodile. The leaves had become pale and papery. The branches of the tree spread out on the road and stopped the movement of traffic like the hired workers of the rasta - roko movement. The tree stood leaning above the road for many years. Its bristles often pricked the people passing close-by. But no one paid any attention to its gentle warnings. At last, the tree lost its natural balance and stood unsafely above the road. It brushed against many vehicles which passed by and sometimes caused minor damages also. As the time passed, the tree was no longer able to support itself on its diseased stem. One day, it came crashing down like a very tall building crashes in an earthquake and blocked the traffic on the road. The concerned officials went to get their huge cranes to remove the giant tree and clear the road. Even in this state of emergency, they were in no hurry. They were sure that the public would wait patiently for the road to clear. The tree in the poem is a symbol of serious national problems. The passing of time and the resultant fall of the tree and the heavy traffic jam depict the indifferent attitude of the government and the officials towards these big issues till they go totally out of hand and paralyses the life of the nation. The common people suffer greatly while the government keeps postponing issues.