Summary of the poem the heart of the tree
Answers
The poet Swami Vivekananda has used metaphors of a wounded snake unfurling its hood, risingflame, echoing sound of the thrilling roar of lion in the desert air and lightning in the heart of clouds to depict the awakening of dormant spiritual power of human being. Human being can give the best performance by awakening and arousing the hidden power of the soul.In the third and fourth stanzas the poet highlights the challenges, problems and difficulties of life. The world and nature may go against us creating hardships and challenges. Our fate may be extremely unfavourable and we may face darkness of despair everywhere. We may experience failure infriendship and betrayal in love. The nature may try to crush us and destroy us but we must not give up, become weak and defeated. Basically we have Divine nature so nothing can defeat us. We need to march ahead without getting distracted to reach our ultimate goal.
In the fifth and sixth stanzas the poet tells about our true nature. We are not angels, men and animals. We are not body and mind. We are beyond the concept of gender as male and female.Bookish knowledge fails to explain the true nature. We are one with the ultimate reality which is pure spirit and pure energy.Seventh and eighth stanzas speak about the eternal existence of the soul. Before the birth of the earth, moon and the glorious sun, before time came into existence, I as the pure spirit existed, still existing and will exist. Material things like the sun, moon and earth are governed by the law of causation. They are limited and restricted by the principles of cause and effects but spirit is beyond everything.Mind with its power of imagination thoughts and ideas create a net to cover everything
.Ninth, tenth and eleven stanzas depict the following concepts.Space and time, law of cause and effect all these are external appearance or outer crust. The reality and truth is the spirit which is beyond all senses and thoughts. The spirit cannot be seen or observed.It is the observer or witness of the universe.This spirit is not two or many. It is essentially one because truth is one. Everything exists in one and the same spirit because spirit is everywhere. In one soul all souls are integrated. It is basically one and cannot be divided and separated. Therefore the poet says, everything is in me and I am in everything.There is no scope for separate existence, no scope for hatred and rejection. There is only one positive force of love and only love.Therefore, let us wake up from the dream of false appearance and bondage. Let us break the chain of bondage and become free in the true sense.This material world is only the mysterious shadow of reality and the reality is pure spirit and pure
energy. Don’t be afraid of anything. Be bold and fearless, just once for all know your true self.
You are one with the ultimate truth.
Answer:
The Heart of the Tree by the American poet and novelist Henry Cuyler Bunner is a fine piece of poetry with a simple theme and a simpler structure. The poem was originally published in 1912.
Planting a tree is always a great work for the mankind. But, the poet has found out new ways to look at the plants and plantation. In his poem The Heart of the Tree he glorifies the act further, shows how a tree helps life on earth and says that it has a direct connection to a nation’s growth.
All the three stanzas of the poem The Heart of the Tree starts with a refrain with the poet asking what the man actually plants who plants a tree. Then he chooses to reply it by himself and shows what a tree means to the humankind and to the nature, thus proving how great that man is.
The rhythm is amazing. The rhyme scheme is ABABBCCAA for each stanza. This is a deviation from the celebrated Spenserian stanza, a nine line stanza with the scheme ABABBCBCC. Though the language is simple, careful wordings makes the poem more expressive and obviously musical and attractive.