Summary of the Throwing a Tree written by Thomas Hardy
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The two executioners stalk along over the knolls,
Bearing two axes with heavy heads shining and wide,
And a long limp two-handled saw toothed for cutting great boles, limp – flexible; boles - trunks
And so they approach the proud tree that bears the death-mark on its side. *
II
Jackets doffed they swing axes and chop away just above ground, doffed – taken off
And the chips fly about and lie white on the moss and fallen leaves; chips – small pieces of
Till a broad deep gash in the bark is hewn all the way round, wood; gash – wound; hewn - cut
And one of them tries to hook upward a rope, which at last he achieves.
III
The saw then begins, till the top of the tall giant shivers:
The shivers are seen to grow greater with each cut than before:
They edge out the saw, tug the rope; but the tree only quivers,
And kneeling and sawing again, they step back to try pulling once more.
IV
Then, lastly, the living mast sways, further sways: with a shout mast – long upright pole
Job and Ike rush aside. Reached the end of its long staying powers
The tree crashes downward: it shakes all its neighbours throughout,
And two hundred years' steady growth has been ended in less than two hours.
* death-mark – a chalked or painted mark to show it is to be felled
To throw a tree is to fell a tree, bring it to the ground. From the very title of the poem, Hardy uses
the technical words and details entailed in the expertise and skill involved in the craft of tree-felling.
Thus the boles are the tree trunks, and the men carry heavy-headed axes and a two-handled saw to
the task. They swing axes, they chop at the tree-trunk just above the ground, they hew (chop or cut
with blows), they hook a rope upwards to pull on one of the high boughs, then they start sawing,
edge the saw out, tug on the rope, and finally the tree crashes downwards. The details are very
precise. The task is a very physical one: the tree fellers take their jackets off and embark on a
series of actions requiring great strength: the verbs show this – ‘swing’, ‘chop’, ‘is hewn’, ‘tries to
hook’, ‘edge’, ‘kneeling and sawing’, ‘step back’, ‘rush.’
But Hardy, although appreciative of the skill of the craftsmen Job and Ike, sees the felling of the
tree as a killing; in the poem’s opening line he describes them as ‘The two executioners’. The
felling is described in emotive terms. The tree’s trunks are ‘great’ and the tree itself is ‘the proud
tree’. Hardy uses the word ‘the death-mark’ for the painted or chalked mark on the tree-trunk that
Bearing two axes with heavy heads shining and wide,
And a long limp two-handled saw toothed for cutting great boles, limp – flexible; boles - trunks
And so they approach the proud tree that bears the death-mark on its side. *
II
Jackets doffed they swing axes and chop away just above ground, doffed – taken off
And the chips fly about and lie white on the moss and fallen leaves; chips – small pieces of
Till a broad deep gash in the bark is hewn all the way round, wood; gash – wound; hewn - cut
And one of them tries to hook upward a rope, which at last he achieves.
III
The saw then begins, till the top of the tall giant shivers:
The shivers are seen to grow greater with each cut than before:
They edge out the saw, tug the rope; but the tree only quivers,
And kneeling and sawing again, they step back to try pulling once more.
IV
Then, lastly, the living mast sways, further sways: with a shout mast – long upright pole
Job and Ike rush aside. Reached the end of its long staying powers
The tree crashes downward: it shakes all its neighbours throughout,
And two hundred years' steady growth has been ended in less than two hours.
* death-mark – a chalked or painted mark to show it is to be felled
To throw a tree is to fell a tree, bring it to the ground. From the very title of the poem, Hardy uses
the technical words and details entailed in the expertise and skill involved in the craft of tree-felling.
Thus the boles are the tree trunks, and the men carry heavy-headed axes and a two-handled saw to
the task. They swing axes, they chop at the tree-trunk just above the ground, they hew (chop or cut
with blows), they hook a rope upwards to pull on one of the high boughs, then they start sawing,
edge the saw out, tug on the rope, and finally the tree crashes downwards. The details are very
precise. The task is a very physical one: the tree fellers take their jackets off and embark on a
series of actions requiring great strength: the verbs show this – ‘swing’, ‘chop’, ‘is hewn’, ‘tries to
hook’, ‘edge’, ‘kneeling and sawing’, ‘step back’, ‘rush.’
But Hardy, although appreciative of the skill of the craftsmen Job and Ike, sees the felling of the
tree as a killing; in the poem’s opening line he describes them as ‘The two executioners’. The
felling is described in emotive terms. The tree’s trunks are ‘great’ and the tree itself is ‘the proud
tree’. Hardy uses the word ‘the death-mark’ for the painted or chalked mark on the tree-trunk that
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The shivers are seen to grow greater with each cut than before: They edge out the saw, tug the rope; but the tree only quivers, And kneeling and sawing again, they step back to try pulling once more. ... the technical words and details entailed in the expertise and skill involved in the craft of tree-felling.
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