Introduction to the Poem

● The poem ‘The Heart

of the Tree’ was
written by the
American poet and
novelist Henry Cuyler
Bunner.
● The poem was
originally published
in 1912.
● The lyric is a fine piece of poetry with a
great theme and a simple structure.
Before getting in to the poem let’s point out
some benefits of planting a tree
 ● Trees purify our atmosphere by
absorbing the toxic carbon dioxide and
release the oxygen we breath.
● Trees provide support to wildlife.
● Trees help in preserving soil.
● Tree roots preserve water in the soil.

And many more, actually we cannot live

without trees.
● In this poem, the poet is glorifying the
act of planting a tree.
● He says how a tree helps life on earth
and that it has a direct connection to a
nation’s growth.
● All the three stanzas of the poem
starts with a same question, and the
poet himself answers the question.
Stanza 1
● Opens with the question ”what does he plant
who plants a tree”?
● The poet himself answers that the man plants a
friend of sun and sky.
● The speaker personifies the tree as a friend of
the sun and the sky.
● The tree needs sunlight and air to survive.
● The speaker adds that the man plants a flag
that flies freely in the breeze.
● The poet compares the leafy branches of the
tree to a flag and the stem to the shaft of the
flag.
● The poet asserts by planting a tree a man plants a
home for the sweet singing birds high in the sky,
near the heaven.
● In quiet and happy twilight we can hear those
birds chirping which is harmonious to heaven’s
own tunes.
 Stanza 2

● The poet repeats the question to begin a new

stanza and attempts to answer again in the
subsequent lines.
● The tree he plants provides us with cool
shade and helps in bringing rain.
● The tree the man plants will produce seed and
bud in future. Years will pass silently but the
tree will remain there through its seeds
producing new trees.
● Trees are the main elements that make a plain
area green and beautiful. So the poet
describes trees as ‘the glory of the plain’.
● today’s single tree may turn into a forest
someday. So by planting a tree now the man
plants a ‘forest’s heritage’.
● The speaker mentions that planting a tree today
would give fruits in coming days.
● Our next generations would be delighted seeing
the vegetation and reap its benefits. So all the
credit goes to the man who plants a tree.
Stanza 3
● In the last stanza the poet says that by
planting a tree the man shows his love and
loyalty for this earth (his home), his sense of
civic duty and his blessings on the
neighbourhood.
● By planting a tree the man directly or indirectly
contributes to the nation’s growth.
● When a tree is planted, it sets in motion the progress
of a nation from sea to sea. And all these start form
the progressive thought in the man’s heart who plants
a tree.
Poetic devices
● The poem opens with a rhetorical
question and the rest of the poem is the
answer to this question. This technique of
posing a question and immediately
following it with an answer is known as
hypophora.
● The poem follows ABABBCCAA rhyme
scheme for each stanza.
● Poet used the technique of
personification, to portray the tree like a
living entity.
● Both flag of breezes and shaft of beauty are
examples of metaphors in the poem.
● The words “home to heaven” , “hush and
happy” and “ fade and flush again ”show the
use of alliteration in the poem.
● The technique of repeating words and
phrases at the beginning of successive lines
is called anaphora. Notice the lines:
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest’s heritage;

This technique is used to create an

impression on the reader while trying to
persuade him.
● In the final stanza, the poet says,

“he plants, in sap and leaf and wood,”

Here, the repetition of the conjunction

‘and’ emphasizes the importance of what is
being said by slowing down the pace of the
poem. This technique is known as
polysyndeton in literature.
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