POEM – 8 THE AXE IN THE WOOD
C1. Answer the following questions and share your responses with your partner.
1. What words in stanza 1 and 2 mean
[a] 100 years [b] scene?
Ans: 100 years means centuries. Scene means sight.
2. Make a list of all the words that are used in the poem to describe the ‘axe’.
Ans: quick, sharp, glittering, struck deep, bright are the words used in the poem to describe the ‘axe’.
3. Read the following words:
Trunk, axe, wood, timber, tree
Which word does not fit in the above list? Strike out.
Ans: Axe.
C2. Answer the following questions picking up the most appropriate one from those given on brackets.
1. What did the man strike the tree with?
[knife, axe, sickle, saw]
Ans: The man strikes the tree with axe.
2. Who were watching the sight of the man cutting the tree? [women, people, wood cutters, children]
Ans: People were watching the sight of the man cutting the tree.
3. What did the tree look like? [strong, small, weak, dry]
Ans: The tree looks like strong.
C3. Read and discuss your responses with your partner. Then write.
1. Who do you think ‘I’ refers to in this poem?
Ans: ‘I’ refers to poet Clifford Henry Dyment in this poem.
2. Why do you think the poet stopped?
Ans: The poet stopped to watch a man strike at the trunk.
3. Which line tells us that the tree is aged?
Ans: “Of a tree grown through many centuries.” This line tells us that the tree is aged.
4. Does the poem mean that cutting a tree is a huge loss for human beings? Which line supports your answer?
Ans: Yes. The poet saw death cut down a thousand men in that tall lovely legacy of tree. The lines “I saw death cut down a thousand men in that lovely legacy of wood.”
5. Do you think the poet wrote this poem while the tree was being cut? Support your answer picking up the relevant line/ lines from poem.
Ans: Yes. We think that the poet wrote this poem while the tree was being cut. The line “I stopped to watch a man strike at the trunk,” supports our answer.
6. Do you think the poet has made his intention clear to the reader at the end? Which lines supports your answer?
Ans: Yes. We think that the poet has made his intention clear to the reader at the end. “I saw death cut down a thousand men in that tall lovely legacy of wood”.
7. What message does the poem give us?
Ans: The poem gives us the message about the harmful effects of poaching, and cutting of trees.
8. What do you learn about the trees from this poem?
Ans: We learn about the tree that the tree give shelter to birds and animals. It balances our earth. It gives us fresh air and shadow and fruits and vegetables. If we cut down a tree it is loss for human beings.
9. ‘But I saw death cut down a thousand men’ explain. What does the poet mean by ‘Lovely legacy of wood’?
Ans: The poet saw the tree when it is small. There were many people serve the plant and now it become a tree. Thousand people were served the tree. Now the poet saw the death of those thousand peoples from the love of the wood.
10. A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines. Usually a sonnet has a rhyme scheme. Is this poem a sonnet? Check whether this poem has a rhyme scheme or not.
Ans: No. This poem is not a sonnet. This poem has not a rhyme scheme.
11. Read the second stanza carefully. Do you find any expressions of irony in it?
Ans: Yes. I find the irony expressions in second stanza the lines “A man who fells a tree makes people watch, for glory seems to crowd upon axe” shows irony expressions.
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