2. Introductory Details
Name Of The Teacher: Megha Elsa Simon
Subject : English
Topic: On Killing A Tree
Class :9
Time: 45 Min
3. Content Analysis:
“On Killing a Tree” is a poem written by Gieve Patel. Gieve
Patel is regarded as one of the prominent Indian poets
writing in English. Patel’s “On Killing a Tree” is a poem
which presents a graphic picture of the total annihilation of
a tree. In the poem the tree symbolizes Nature. Modern man
out of his indiscriminate greed and selfishness roots out
nature and its very spirit. Man’s greed is not quenched by
the mere physical process of killing a tree.
Learning outcomes
The learner will be able to,
•develop the four fold skill of english language-lsrw
•read and comprehend the poem themselves
•understands the need of preserving what is in the nature
•learn new words according to the context.
Pre requisites
The learner
•has read similar poems
•has made posters for awareness of conservation of natural
resources
4. Do you know who is Gieve Patel?
Let’s see about him from this chart.
5. •Gieve Patel (born 18 August 1940) is an
Indian poet, playwright, painter, as well
as a practicing physician/doctor based in
Mumbai.
•Patel belongs to a group of writers who
have subscribed themselves to the 'Green
Movement' which is involved in an effort
to protect the environment.
• His poems speak of deep concerns for
nature and expose man's cruelty to it.
Patel's works include poems (1966), How
Do You Withstand. Body (1976) and
Mirrored Mirroring (1991).
•He has also written three plays titled
princes, Savaska, and Mr Behram.
6. Let’s answer these questions
What comes to your mind,
•When you look at trees?
•When you watch trees during different seasons?
•When you play with?
•When you harm it?
•When it cut down?
•When you look at its root?
•Will it survive?
8. It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of the knife
Will do it. It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it, feeding
Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leperous hide
Sprouting leaves.
So hack and chop
But this alone wont do it.
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will
expand again
To former size
No,
The root is to be pulled out -
Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out - snapped out
Or pulled out entirely,
Out from the earth-cave,
And the strength of the tree exposed,
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden
For years inside the earth.
Then the matter
Of scorching and
choking
In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,
And then it is done.
10. Most of your answers may
matched with lines of the poem
and so you may also got the
theme of the poem.
The theme of the poem is not
to destroy trees and equates
it with “killing” a human
being.
11. Jab: to pierce with or as
if with a sharp object
Leprous hide: discoloured
bark
Hack: cut
Boughs: branches
Snapped out: chopped out
Scorching: the drying up of
tree after being
uprooted
