Class 10 English First Flight Poem 7 The Trees NCERT Solutions

NCERT Solutions Class 10 English First Flight Poem 7 The Trees by Adrienne Rich help you understand the deeper meaning behind the poem’s depiction of nature’s quiet struggle and renewal. The poem uses vivid imagery and symbolism to show how trees break free from confinement, representing growth, freedom, and change. It also reflects the connection between nature and human life while exploring themes of resilience and hope. These solutions make it easier to interpret poetic ideas and write clear, meaningful answers in exams.

The Trees Class 10 NCERT Solutions

Class 10 English The Trees question answer helps you understand the poem’s key themes of resilience, growth, and human connection with nature. These answers are useful for analysing poetic devices and preparing the CBSE Class 10 English syllabus. 

Question 1: (i) Find, in the first stanza, three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest.

(ii) What picture do these words create in your mind: “… sun bury its feet in shadow…”? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet’?

Answer:
(i) The three things that cannot occur in a forest without trees are:

• Birds sitting on trees

• Insects hiding in trees

• The sun burying its feet in the shadow of the forest

(ii) The sun’s ‘feet’ represent the rays and heat of the sun touching the ground. Without trees, no shadows are formed, so the sunlight falls directly. In a forest, the shade created by trees makes it appear as though the sun’s feet are buried in the shadows.

Question 2:
(i) Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, their leaves, and their twigs do?

(ii) What does the poet compare their branches to?

Answer:
(i) In the poem, the trees are limited to the poet’s house. Their roots work tirelessly to push through cracks in the veranda floor. Leaves try to reach the glass, applying pressure to break it, while the small twigs become stiff and strained with effort.

(ii) The poet compares the cramped branches under the roof to newly discharged hospital patients who appear disoriented and confused. The large branches feel restricted and want to stretch out freely into the open air.

Question 3:
(i) How does the poet describe the moon: (a) at the beginning of the third stanza, and (b) at its end? What causes this change?

(ii) What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?

(iii) Why do you think the poet does not mention “the departure of the forest from the house” in her letters?

Answer:
(i) At the start of the third stanza, the full moon shines clearly in the night sky. By the end, its light appears broken like a shattered mirror over the tallest oak trees. This happens because the trees moving outside partially block the moonlight.

(ii) As the trees move, some glass breaks and the scent of leaves and lichen fills the house, as if the trees themselves are speaking.

(iii) The poet rarely mentions the forest leaving the house because people often ignore nature. She feels that most would not appreciate the trees’ struggle to be free. Observing this beauty personally, she feels joy and satisfaction at seeing the trees return to the forest.

Question 4: 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 ‘break out’?

(ii) On the other hand, Adrienne Rich has been known to use trees as a metaphor for human beings; this is a recurrent image in her poetry. What new meanings emerge from the poem if you take its trees to be symbolic of this particular meaning?

Answer:
The poem can have multiple interpretations. The poet uses trees to convey more than one meaning.

(i) Yes, the poem shows a conflict between humans and nature. People often harm nature, cut down forests, and confine trees to limited spaces, depriving them of freedom. As a result, the branches struggle to stretch out into open air. Similarly, in A Tiger in the Zoo, animals are confined in cages and long for freedom.

(ii) If trees symbolize humans, the poem suggests that like trees, humans desire freedom from routines and restrictions. Despite striving to earn a living and enjoying some comforts, people are often restricted and long to break free, just as the trees seek open space.

Question 5: You may read the poem ‘On Killing a Tree’ by Gieve Patel (Beehive – Textbook in English for Class IX, NCERT). Compare and contrast it with the poem you have just read.

Answer:
Activity to be done by yourself.

Class 10 English The Trees Poetic Devices

Here are key poetic devices used in the poem that must be revised for the upcoming  CBSE Class 10th board exam:

• Personification: The trees inside are moving out into the forest, the roots work all night, the leaves strain toward the glass, the forest that was empty will be full, and the trees are stumbling forward.
• Metaphor: Trees inside the house as trapped nature, breaking of glass as breaking of barriers, trees moving out as a struggle for freedom, house as human domination over nature.
• Symbolism: Trees as nature and suppressed voices, forest as freedom and natural space, house as confinement, moon as hope and change.
• Imagery: The night is fresh, the whole moon shines, the smell of leaves and lichen, long cramped branches, the glass is breaking.
• Onomatopoeia: Cracking, breaking.
• Simile: The moon is broken like a mirror.
• Contrast: Empty forest and crowded house, confined indoor space and open natural world.