"Our Casuarina Tree" by Toru Dutt (Summary Stanza-wise/ Synopsis/ Substance/ Explained line by line/ Analysis)

Stanza 1

Just as an enormous python meandering itself round its victim and kills it, a creeper twists round the rough trunk of the casuarina tree up to the treetop. There are deep scars on the rugged trunk of the tree left by the creeper. Anyway, the creeper cannot kill the casuarina tree. Making a fun of the creeper, the vast tree wears it like a scarf, as if it is its embellishment. The scarlet flowers bloom among the long branches of the tree hanging in clusters. The birds and bees gather there when it is daytime, and at night, now and then, the garden, where the casuarina tree stands straight, is flooded with a unique melodious song of the bird, when people sleep in their houses.

 

Stanza 2

At daybreak, the poet-cum-speaker opens her window open. She becomes engrossed with the loveliness and magnificence of the tree. It is mostly in winter when a baboon sits still like a statue on the tree. It stays busy staring sullenly at the sunrise. The young baboons jump and play because they are too young to climb up the highest part of the tree. They are seated on the lower branches of the casuarina tree. The kokilas long for the day with their melodious notes. The cows that are still sleepy set out for the grazing fields. The tree reflects its shadow on the water of the expansive pond. The attractive water-lilies bloom in the pond. They appear like a big mass of white snow.

 

Stanza 3

The casuarina tree remains extremely dear to the poet-speaker. It is not due to its splendour but because she develops an extremely emotional bond with the tree. The poet-cum-speaker, with her brother and sister, played merrily under the tree. Many years have rolled away. The poet-cum-speaker still loves them with such intensity as before. For the sake of her siblings, the tree will be dear to her always. The tree is identified with the sweet memories of the dead siblings. It will keep on haunting her mind till her eyes get filled with hot tears. The poet-cum-speaker hears the dirge of the casuarina tree for her dead brothers and sisters. The dirge is akin to the sound of the marine waves breaking on the seashore scattered with pebbles. The lament of the tree, though an uncanny speech, may traverse to the untravelled territory of the deceased.

 

Stanza 4

The poet-cum-speaker utters that after demise, her brother and sister went to an unknown land from. There it would have been utterly impossible for them to come back. The poet fostering the belief in the mysticism of nature—‘eye of faith’—hears the howling sob of the tree. She has listened to the weep of the casuarina tree. She can hear it even when she remains in foreign lands, like in France or Italy. It was audible to her near many sheltered bays, on a moonlit night, when the earth is in a trance in sound sleep without having a dream. She can hear the wail of the casuarina tree even in her vision. Moreover, she beholds the beautiful and superb appearance of the casuarina tree, just as she used to do so in her youth.

 

Stanza 5

Hence, the poet-cum-speaker desires to compose a lyric in memory and honour of the casuarina tree. She is engrossed in singing praises of the beauty and glory of the tree. The tree is the wonderland of her siblings who are enjoying their everlasting sleep forever. They are more loved to the poet-cum-speaker than her own life. She wants to attribute immortality to the tree. She yearns for the tree to be counted among those in Borrowdale. Under the breath-taking branches of the tree, there are the negative agents of death—Fear, trembling Hope, Death and Time. Yes, the casuarina tree will die physically, but her genuine love for the tree will protect the tree from the curse of obliviousness. Her poem may be feeble. Still, the poem will keep on rehearsing the uniqueness and magnificence of the tree.