Toru Dutt Poem

Toru Dutt was an Indian poet who wrote in English and French, and made a mark in literature in spite of her premature death.

Early Life

She remained in Calcutta till November 1869, after which she and her sister Aru traveled to France, Italy and then England. She went to a school in France for the first time of her life and had an intimacy with French during that period.

That trees have a special attraction for poets, not with standing differences in caste , creed, colour, culture, time is known to most lovers/readers of poetry. Birches , Beeches, Cedars , Fig Trees, the Neem , the Yew , whether in gardens or in grave yards , whether on road –sides or by windows , they continue to inspire poets of the West who , in response , write lines either on their hugeness or on the thickness of the foliage

In the third stanza, she links up the tree with the memories of her deceased brother, Abju and her deceased sister, Aru. She feels great pain when she remembers the happy time that she had with them. The Casuarina tree connects her past with her present. Thus, the poet heard ‘that wail far, far away in distant lands.’

In the last stanza, the poet immortalizes the tree. She would like to dedicate a lay in the honor of the tree because it is ‘beloved of those who now in blessed sleep for aye repose’. Though her verse may be weak, her love will confer immortality on the Casuarina tree.

The poet has made abundant use of similes, metaphors, personification and allusion. In the first stanza, she compares the creeper winding round the trunk of the Casuarina tree to a huge python. She also, metaphorically, refers to the creeper as a scarf and also calls the tree a giant. She goes on to compare the water-lilies in the tank to snow. She personifies fear, time, death, and hope to intensify her feeling of loss. She also makes an allusion to the yew trees of Borrowdale made famous by William Wordsworth. She wants her Casuarina tree too, to be