Chapter - 4: A Poison Tree
Comprehension Questions
I. Answer briefly the following questions.
2)
Answer: When the speaker suppressed his anger, it only grew.
3) How are the results differ in the two instances?
Answer: Expression of anger in the first instance relieves the person of all ill-feeling, whereas suppression of anger in the second instance poisons him all the more because it grows.
4) When the poet is thinking about his anger, the picture of a tree comes to his mind. Which word in the first stanza suggests a tree?
Answer:
5) The speaker helped his anger to grow. The second stanza mentions the different ways in which he helped his anger grow. What are the different ways?
Answer: The speaker watered it in fears, night and morning with his tears and sunned it with smiles.
6) “Water’d it in fears” suggests that
a. the speaker did not have the courage to express his anger
b. the speaker was afraid of the consequences
c. the speaker didn’t want to displease his enemy
Answer: (b) the speaker was afraid of the consequences.
7) The word ‘tears’ suggests that
a. the speaker too suffered for suppressing his anger
b. the enemy suffered
c. the speaker had to go through a lot of anxiety
Answer: (c) the speaker had to go through a lot of anxiety.
8) “sunned it with smiles” suggests that a. the speaker cunningly hid his anger with bright smiles b. the speaker pretended that he was not angry c. the speaker let his anger grow secretly
Answer: (a) the speaker cunningly hid his anger with bright smiles.
Answer: And I sunnedii with smiles And with soft deceitful wiles.
10) The second stanza continues the image (picture) of a tree suggested in the first stanza. Which words in the second stanza refer to a growing
Answer: “Water’dHsunned it’.
11) The poet, ‘so far, has been talking about
a) his suppressed anger
b) a growing tree
c) both Answer: his suppressed anger.
Answer: A poison tree with poisonous fruits.
14) “Apple” in the poem refers to
a) the forbidden but tempting apple in the garden of Eden (in The Bible)
b) the consequence of suppressing anger
c) the fruit of his enmity
Answer: (b) the consequence of suppressing anger.
15) The apple is ‘bright’ because
a) it is intended to attract the foe
b) it is intended to tempt the foe
Answer:
16) Who “stole” into the speaker’s garden?
Answer: The enemy
17) The word “stole” means a) that the enemy stole the apple b) that the enemy entered the speaker’s garden stealthily
Answer: (b) that the enemy entered the speaker’s garden stealthily.
18) What does the speaker see in the morning?
Answer: The speaker sees his enemy dead under the apple tree in the morning.
19) Why, do you think, “dies” at the end? Is it only the enemy? Does the speaker also die? What kind of death ‘ does he die?
Answer: The enemy is physically and truly dead. But the speaker also suffers a lot of guilt for having caused this death. Though he is alive physically, he is emotionally dead.
20) “A Poison Tree” could refer to
a) the tree of hatred and enmity grew by the seed of suppressed anger
b) the destructive effect of being hypocritical and deceitful
c) the spiritual death of a person for nurturing base passions
Answer: All of the above.
II. Close Study: Read the following extracts .carefully. Discuss in pairs and then write the answers to the questions given below them:
Who stole into the garden?
Answer: The speaker’s enemy stole into the garden. Why did he steal into the garden?
Answer: He came stealthily to steal the apple from the speaker’s apple tree. Explain the phrase ‘veiled the pole’.
2) And I sunned it with smiles And with soft deceitful wiles What does the word “sunned’ suggest?
Answer: As long as the speaker smiles hypocritically, his anger with his foe continues to grow. Thus, his smiles are acting upon his anger like sunshine, helping it to grow.
3) Explain the phrase “deceitful wiles”
Answer: ‘Deceitful’ means ‘deliberately done in order to fool someone’. The speaker pretends to be friendly with his enemy by behaving in a very sweet manner.
4) Why had the speaker “sunned” it?
Answer: The speaker was afraid to express his anger with his enemy. Hence he pretended to be friendly and happy with him. This pretence only made his anger grow.
III. Paragraph Writing Discuss, in pairs or groups of 4 each, the answers to the following questions. Note down the important points and then develop them into a paragraph.
1) How does the poet use the image of a tree to bring out the destructive effect of suppressed anger?
Answer: The speaker waters his suppressed anger with fears and tears. He ‘suns’ it with smiles and deceitful wiles. The tree grows both day and night, and bears a bright apple. When the foe eats the apple, he dies.
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