Our Casuarina Tree by Toru Dutt poem summary| Indian Writings in English| B.A English Literature 1st Year 1st Semester

 B.A English Literature 

[1^st Year, 1^st Semester] 

Core Paper IV: INDIAN WRITINGS IN ENGLISH 

UNIT 2: Poetry

“Our Casuarina Tree” by Toru Dutt

About Poet:

Toru Dutt (1856–1877) poet, novelist, essayist and translator who was an outstanding pioneer in the history of Indian literature. She contributed regularly to the ‘Poet’s Corner’ of The Bengal Magazine and The Calcutta Review, publishing a series of English translations of French poetry between March 1874 and March 1877. The only work that was published during Toru’s lifetime was A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1876).

Toru Dutt was the first woman writer in the history of Indo-Anglian literature. She was undeniably the finest flower of Indian Renaissance that began with Raja Rammohun Roy- the tireless crusader for English education in India.

About Poem:

‘Our Casuarina Tree‘ is an ode by the famous Indian poet Toru Dutt. It was published in her collection of poems Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan in 1882.    

The title ‘Our Casuarina Tree’ is a sign of happiness in the poet’s life. The tree is used as a symbolic representation of the poetess’s past memories. She wrote this poem when she was Abroad. The poem is written in an autobiographical and nostalgic tone.

Structure of the Poem:

‘Our Casuarina Tree’ is divided into 5 stanzas with each stanzas consisting 11 lines, making it a 55 lines poem. Each stanza in the poem follows the rhyme scheme of ABBACDDCEEE. 

Summary:

In the first stanza of ‘Our Casuarina Tree’, the majesty of the Casuarina tree is illustrated in the opening lines. The Casuarina Tree is standing very tall whose summit is near to the stars.

‘Our Casuarina Tree’ begins with a simile. A creeper twisting round and round the uneven rough trunk of Casuarina that has created deep scar around the tree which looks like a huge python creeping around. No other tree, if not it is Casuarina, could survive the chokehold of the creeper. But the giant Casuarina courageously wears the flowers like a scarf and the flowers hanging around the branches of the tree.

Birds and bees are gathered among the flowers all the day. Often at nights, the song of a singing bird overflows the garden in which the tree is standing. The poet describes that the song of bird seems to have no end. The bird continues to sing throughout the while people are at sleep. It seems the song continues until daybreak.

In the second stanza the poetess is delighted to see the Casuarina tree when she opens her window at every dawn. During the winter, a gray baboon is seen sitting statue-like on the crest of the tree watching sunrise while its young baboon leaping and playing on the tree’s lower branches.

The tree occupies a pride place in the garden and in the surrounding area, there are sleepy cows and the delighted song of the kokilas (Nightingale) which preserve the garden’s liveliness. The shadow of the giant tree falls on the huge water tank. And in the shadow of the tree, the water-lilies spring on the water tank which look like a mass of snow is gathered around.

In the next stanza the poet illustrates the magnificence of the tree and the natural beauty of the garden in which the Casuarina tree resides. The tree is so dear to the poet’s soul not because of the grandeur of the tree, but because she has spent all the happy moments under the tree with her siblings Abju and Aru. Whatever the poet has described so far is all her memories and nostalgic recollections of her memories of the tree. Because the Casuarina Tree is so far now.  At present, she resides somewhere else away from the tree, several thousand miles away in an alien land.

She addresses her companions directly “O sweet Companions” and says that the tree is so dear to her only because of them. The tree often arises in her memory blent with the images of her loved companions until her hot tears blind her eyes. The poet could still hear the mournful murmur of the tree even after many years when she is boarded in an alien land. The poet compares the murmur sound of the tree to the sea interrupt on a pebbles filled beach“.

Now in the fourth stanza, the poet is living in a distant unknown land. The strange speech of the Casuarina tree reaches the far unknown lands. However the author is physically separate from the tree, the speaker can hear its sound because she is deeply connected with its memories.

The poet has heard similar sounds or music in distant lands, such as in the sheltered bays, the music of the waves when gently kissed the classic seashore of France or Italy especially when the world is very calm under the moon, and the sound the water-wraith when snoozed in his cave. All these sounds bring forth the image of the Casuarina tree to her mind. The lasting image of the tree with her loved ones haunts her at every vision.

In last stanza, the poet would like to dedicate the memory of the haunting tree to those of loved ones who are now blessed with eternal sleep (died) hoping that the tree may be numbered among the deathless trees like those in Borrowdale (the tree may become immortal) even after her life is done. The poet alludes to Wordsworth’s poem “Yew-Trees” in which he immortalizes the trees in Borrowdale valley in the Lake district. She also wishes the tree be free from ‘Oblivion’s curse’ i.e., it would outlive generations and be celebrated for long as her moving love for the tree has captured it in this poem.

‘Our Casuarina Tree’ is a poem in which the tree becomes the medium for the poet to link between her present and her unforgettable childhood days under the tree. The poetess could still remember the tree because she had all happiness of her childhood under the tree. Our Casuarina Tree is an ode to the happy memories of the poetess around the tree that constantly haunts her in her later part of life.

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