Now that you have read the poem in detail, we can begin to ask what the poem might mean. Here are two suggestions. Can you think of others? (i) Does the poem present a conflict between man and nature? Compare it with A Tiger in the Zoo. Is the poet suggesting that plants and trees, used for ‘Interior decoration’ in cities while forests are cut down, are ‘imprisoned’, and need to ‘breakout’?

Question

Now that you have read the poem in detail, we can begin to ask what the poem might mean. Here are two suggestions. Can you think of others? (i) Does the poem present a conflict between man and nature? Compare it with A Tiger in the Zoo. Is the poet suggesting that plants and trees, used for ‘Interior decoration’ in cities while forests are cut down, are ‘imprisoned’, and need to ‘breakout’?

Philoid · Accepted Answer

Yes, the poem, ‘The trees’ presents a conflict between man and nature. Man often uses nature recklessly for his own comforts and needs curbing their freedom. Plants and trees are used for interior decoration in homes, trees are cut down for wood, forests cleared for commercial and residential purposes and animals are put in cages. They seemed to be imprisoned and struggle to come out. In many such ways, man becomes a hindrance in the freedom of plants and animals. The poem shows their struggle as they strive to move out. To compare it with the poem ‘A Tiger in Zoo’, it can be said that the tiger also longs for freedom. The poet thus presents the fact that animals should not be bound in cages because it restricts their freedom to move around. Their condition, in the prison, is pitiable and they want to break out from this imprisonment.