OUR CASUARINA TREE AS A MEMORY POEM

OUR CASUARINA TREE AS A MEMORY POEM

Toru Dutt’s Our Casuarina Tree   is a memory poem. The word ‘our’ in the very title of the poem adds a personal touch to the poem. The word implies that the tree was not just an ordinary tree for the poet. It was a part of her life and memory, an integral aspect of her childhood that she shared with her brother and sister. The poem brings out her nostalgic recollection of the past.

The six stanza poem brings out the warmth of her relationship with the tree. It stood with its colossal form supporting a creeper growing around it. However, the poet then goes on to say that it was not for its colossal form that the tree was dear to her. She was fond of the tree for it was an integral part of her childhood. The tree was close to her heart. ‘Beneath’ it she had played with her Siblings until death had taken them away from her. Whereas the first stanza gives an objective description of the tree, “the second relates the tree to the poet’ own impression of it at different times; the third Links up the tree with her memories of her lost brother and sister; the fourth humanizes the tree, for its lament is human recordation of pain and regret, the last stanza wills as it were the immortality of the tree.” (Iyengar).

The tree served as a link between the past and the present for her. Removed far away from her homeland the memory of the tree gave the poet solace and comfort. Like Wordsworth seeking solace from his recollections of childhood and boyhood years spent in close communion with nature, the casuarina Tree too soothed the poet’s intense craving for her homeland tormenting her heart.  The poet’s intense nostalgia for the tree too reminds us of Wordsworth’s longing for the ‘Sylvan Wye’ in The Tintern Abbey.  The casuarina tree thus continued to haunt Toru Dutt in a similar way. It remained deep within her consciousness even when she was far away from her homeland and it comforted her when she pined for her bygone days with a fond heart............................................................................

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Milan Tomic

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