Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions:

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants a friend of sun and sky;

He plants the flag of breezes free;

The shaft of beauty, towering high;

He plants a home to heaven anigh;

(i) To whom is the poet asking the question in the first line of the extract? Mention any two things,

according to the extract, that man will do by planting trees.

(ii) Give the meaning of the following lines:

He plants of friend of sun and sky;

He plants the flag of breezes free.

(iii) In what way are the trees friends of sun and sky? How can a man plant the flag of breezes free?

(iv) What is meant by “ The shaft of beauty? What is compared to the shaft?

(v) What is the impact of beginning the Poem with a question? What is the figure of speech​

Answer 1

Answer:

(i) God perhaps?

(ii) He plants of friend (the tree) of sun and sky;

He plants the flag (leaves) of breezes free.

(iii) The tree here is a friend of sun and sky ( because of the breeze and oxygen) and the "flagpole" is  the trunk, and the "flag" are the leaves.

(iv) The shaft of beauty is the trunk of the tree, long and elegant.

Answer 2

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1. The poet Henry Cuyler Bunner is asking the listeners in the first line of the extract list any two aspects. According to the extract, the two things that the man will do by planting the trees, are: The man will "plant a friend of the sun and the sky".
2. These lines means that the man plants a friend of sun and sky by planting a tree. A plant grows upwards and aims to reach the sun and the sky. So it is as if the sun and the sky get a new friend in a tree. Now, the man plants a flag that flies freely in the mild breeze.
3. A series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.
4. The shaft of beauty actually mean 'the beam of beauty'. As the tree grows high with its long narrow stem, it looks like a beautiful tower. ... In Henry Bunner's poem 'The Heart of the Tree', the 'shaft of beauty' is the trunk of the tree. It is compared to a flagpole that holds the flag-like branches high in the sky.
5. When the poem begins with a question, readers become curious to know the perspective thought of the poet which he/she sees. The figure of the speech used here is rhetorical question.