PT3 LITERATURE CLASS –POEM -The day the Bulldozers Came ENGLISH

Form 3 Poem: The Day the Bulldozers Came – David Orme | Themes & Moral values|

The day the bulldozers came

Rooks were building
Crazy egg baskets in the oaks;
Green flies sizzled by the pond
And a cold-eyed toad
Waited for them.

The day the bulldozers came

Squirrels were scattering
Up tree trunks,
And leapt from branches
That were hardly there.

The fox
Stirred in his sleep
As the ground trembled.
‘Ha ha!’ he thought,
‘I’m quite safe,
Deep down in the Earth,
No one can get me here.’
Then the bulldozer came.

Poem Meaning
Stanza
The day the bulldozers came
Rooks were building
When the bulldozers came to the forest, Rooks
Crazy egg baskets in the oaks; (a type of bird) were making nests (egg
Stanza baskets) in oak trees.
1 Green flies sizzled by the pond
Green flies were buzzing around the pond
And a cold-eyed toad while a toad was waiting to eat them.
Waited for them.
 PT3 LITERATURE CLASS –POEM -The day the Bulldozers Came ENGLISH

The day the bulldozers came

Squirrels were scattering When the bulldozers came to the forest,
squirrels were scared and they were running
Stanza Up tree trunks,
up the trees. They tried to leap from branch to
2 And leapt from branches branch, but the tree branches were no longer
there. The bulldozers had knocked them down.
That were hardly there.

The fox
Stirred in his sleep
As the ground trembled.
The fox woke up from his nap but he went back
‘Ha ha!’ he thought, to sleep. He felt the ground shake but he
Stanza thought he was safe deep down in the foxhole.
‘I’m quite safe,
3 However, the bulldozers came and dug him out
Deep down in the Earth, of the soil!
No one can get me here.’
Then the bulldozer came.

Meaning of the Stanza

Themes:
1. Destruction of nature

The bulldozers are designed to knock down trees and flatten lands for development.
However this has resulted in the destruction of nature. Many trees are knocked
down. Animals lose their home and have no where to go.

2. Change is inevitable
Life is always changing. Change cannot be avoided. For example, the bulldozers are
invented to replace the animals and help human to develop new lands.

3. Alertness
It is important to be alert to our surroundings. For example, the fox believes that as
long as he hides in the hole, he will be safe. However he does not realize that the
change that humans make is now able to harm him even though he is deep in the
ground. He needs to be alert so that he can survive the change.
PT3 LITERATURE CLASS –POEM -The day the Bulldozers Came ENGLISH

4. Disruption of life
The lives of the animals in the forest are disrupted by human’s activities. For
example, the bulldozers knock down the tree branches where the squirrels live. The
bulldozers also disrupt the home of the foxes by digging up the foxholes.

Moral values:
1. We should be alert to any threats and changes around us.
2. We should be ready to face changes.
3. We should respect the nature and the animals that depend on it.
4. We should protect flora and fauna and the only Earth we have.
5. We should understand that development projects can bring harm to the
nature.