appreciation of the cherry tree poem
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Cherry Tree is a poem about the ecstasy of the poet over a cherry plant which he has seeded eight years ago. In the poem, Bond expresses his wonder at the ways of nature and how it takes care of itself to survive against all odds. Eight year ago, the poet planted a cherry seed out of whim to have a plant of his own, ‘Must have a tree of my own’. The young poet watered it daily but was unaware of the fact that cherry plant needs other special care too to grow into a healthy tree. In spite of getting any special attention, by the end of May, the poet saw the small cherry sapling coming out of the ground. It was a very small plant, young and fragile, vulnerable to all kinds of external dangers. Tall wild grasses grew all around it and ‘the goats’ ate its ‘leaves’ and then one day the grass cutter’s blade mercilessly ‘split it apart’. Its tender stem also bravely fought the heavy monsoon and even after all these, the poet saw new shoots growing out of it as the young tree made its struggle against nature to survive and fiercely made an ‘upward thrust’ to get ‘light and air and sun’.
The poet could now just wait and watch while he took pleasure on seeing his small cherry plant blossoming into a tree as ‘Time and the rain’ nourished it and like a miracle the tree grew, too stubborn to give up. Then it was time for the poet to bid adieu to his beloved tree as he went to Kashmir to spend a season there. The poet returned after a few months poor in health and heart but was overjoyed to find a ‘six feet high’ dark cherry tree at his doorstep. To his disbelief, he saw a small berry fruit hanging from a branch, ‘Hung from a branch—just one!’, a small little pink and fragile berry that could fall at the single stir of wind.
In his ecstasy, the poet “lay on the grass” whole day at leisure to look up to the cherry tree as the “finches” flew past and birds flocked in and out of the tree and the bees drank nectar from each ‘bloom’. Soon it was dark and stars lit the whole night sky and the ‘moon-moths’ and crickets sang. As the poet enjoyed the rapture of nature and felt himself akin with it, he marveled at his own creation, the small cherry plant that has grown into a big tree over the span of eight years. In the ending couplet, the poet associates himself with the nature and creator, as he takes pride for being part of it, “Yes, I!- praised Night and Stars and tree:/ That small, the cherry, grown by me.” Cherry Tree, is therefore, the poet’s rumination about the ways of nature as it participate in the process of creation, the struggle of each living object for the ‘upward thrust’, to fight and survive despite all odds, the microcosm journey towards the macrocosm.
written -By Tanishka⚡