Students get through the MP Board Class 12th English Important Questions Special English Chapter 5 Our Casuarina Tree which are most likely to be asked in the exam.
MP Board Class 12th Special English Important Questions Chapter 5 Our Casuarina Tree
A. Answer the following questions in about 50 – 60 words each:
Question 1.
What does the poetess see when she opens her window in winter-morn? (Imp.)
Answer:
When the poetess opens her window in the winter she finds a gray baboon sitting like a stature over the crest of the tree. It watches the sunrise. On its lower boughs the little creatures leap and play while the cuckoos sing a welcome note for the day.
Question 2.
Who exhales a dirge-like murmur and for what reason? (M.P. 2018)
Answer:
The poetess personifies the big tree. She says that the tree was very much affected by the happenings in the family. When she lost her brother and sister, he felt the tree in a long mournful dirge-like murmur.
Question 3.
Explain ‘Unknown, yet well known to the eye of faith’ with reference to the poem. (M.P. 2012)
Answer:
Here the poetess says that it is quite unreal to see a tree mourning or weeping. No one has ever seen it crying or wailing but it is still a well-known fact for one’s faith. If one can believe, one can feel it to be real.
Question 4.
How does the poetess propose to sanctify her association with the tree and why?
Answer:
The poetess proposes to sanctify her association with the tree by composing songs in its honour. She wants to write sacred verses for it. The tree has become a very important part of her life. She feels herself closely associated and attached with the tree for it had been beloved to her brother and sister also who are now no more.
Question 5.
How does the poetess bless the tree?
Answer:
The poetess feels sad when she thinks that the tree would die one day. So she wishes its long life. She prays that her verses may change the destiny of the tree, though she knows the reality. Still she hopes for the long life of the tree.
B. Answer the following questions in about 75 – 100 words each:
Question 1.
How does the poetess compare the creeper to a huge python? What characteristic of the tree has been highlighted by it? (Imp.)
Or
How has the Casuarina tree been personified in the poem? (M.P. 2016)
Answer:
‘Our Casuarina Tree’ is a fine poem in which the poetess highlights a tree with all her emotional attachment with it. Personifying the tree the poetess bestows all sorts of magnificence and grandeur to the tree. She compares it with a python. She says that the tree bears all similarities of the python. A creeper grows round and round its trunk making deep scars over it and goes to its summit. It seems to be embracing the sky.
Question 2.
What does the poetess see when she opens her casement at dawn?
Answer:
The poetess whenever in the dawn opens her casement wide open she feels great delight to see the tree cool and restive. During winter she usually finds a gray baboon sitting like a statue alone at the crest of the tree. It watches sunrise with great concentration. In the lower boughs she finds little creatures leaping and playing while far and near the songs of the cuckoos make a welcome note for the rising day.
Question 3.
For what reasons is the Casuarina tree dear to the poetess? (M.P. 2011)
Answer:
The Casuarina tree is dear to the poetess for many reasons. The first is its magnificence. It is tall and grand to look at. It is dazzling like a python. Its generosity is unique. It gives something to all-the shade, cool breeze, and repose. One feels relaxed here. The other reason is that the poetess has spent all her childhood under its shade. She has played there with her brother and sister who are no more now. So the tree is an inseparable part of her life for having memories of her life.
Question 4.
How intense and heart-felt is the tree’s mourning for Abju and Aru?
Answer:
The poetess has personified the tree. She feels that it mourn the death of her brother and sister. Tree shares her sadness with its dirge-like murmur which the poetess seems to hear. She also feels the tree waiting like sea breaking on a shingle-beach. Though such an outburst is quite unusual but the poetess wants to highlight the humanised features of the tree which seems to be so concerned with the human affection.
Question 5.
‘The poem is an ode in form and elegy in spirit and tone’. Explain with illustrations.
Answer:
‘Our Casuarina Tree’ is a poem which highlights the tree’s contribution in the life of the poetess. It is an effort of the poetess to immortalise the tree through her verses. The tree is an inevitable part of her life. So he is all respectful and highly dedicated to the tree which is more than her life.
On the other hand, the poetess also remembers her brother and sister who died at a very early life. Here the poetess laments their death and also makes the tree feel and mourn it. She also talks about the death which is sure to come. Thus this poem is an ode in form but an elegy in spirit.