Toru Dutt's "Our Casuarina Tree"

Toru Dutt's "Our Casuarina Tree"is included in her Miscellaneous poem published at the end of the Ballads. the poem has been hailed by E.G.Thomas as"surely the most remarkable poem ever written in English by a foreigner." The poetess laments over the loss of her siblings as their relationship is elaborated upon, through their association with the old Casuarina tree in the yard. The tree in turn at once symbolizes ones roots and emblematizes the motherland. The determiner 'our' emphasizes the same. The poetess exemplifies this connection in three stages.

The first part objectively describes the tree as a giant festooned with the crimson flowers of a giant creeper that wraps around the tree. The tree stands tall as it has survived the oppressive embraces of the creeper. The creeper at once stands for the ravages of time,and chain of events whose onslaught the Tree has overpowered.It may also stand for cultural invasion.The tree has accepted the creeper(other cultures) and at the same time has maintained its identity .The garden echoes the songs of the birds and bees it gives abode to. While men repose,it is the rich natural diversity that sets it apart from a humdrum existence. The trunk is 'rugged' and 'indented with scars'. Nevertheless ,the base is strong,and the tree though weathered stands tall.

As the poet opens her windows to witness sunrise at dawn, the tree is the first to witness the same, with a statuesque baboon resting on the crest, and the puny offsprings playing at the base. The tree at once renders itself into the silent witness of history, and generations to emerge from the base. The shadow of the tree falls against the water-lilies in the tank making them look 'snow enmeshed'. The reflection of the tree therefore endows others with splendor. The koklilas and the grazing cattle represent moving life. Nevertheless, it is the static nature of the all-encompassing tree that renders these life forms dynamic.

The tree, as magnificent as it is, is not dear for its grandeur. It is dear for the nostalgic memories it brings back to the poetess. In this regard, the tree bridges the gap between the past and the present. It also overcomes time and space. Reminiscent of Arnold's "Dover Beach", the sea breaking on the shingle beach produces a rattling sound that sounds dirge-like. The dirge-like murmur is symbolic of a universal wail, the still sad music of humanity. It is unknown, yet it is universal. Of France or Italy, as the waves reverberated with music, the poetess' vision of the tree foregrounded the scenario.

The first two stanzas scrutinize the tree objectively. The following two subjectively analyses its relation with the poetess' own state of being. It connects the immortal tree to the mortal siblings, and thereby renders them immortal. For, their memories are deeply entangled with the existence of the tree. The poem celebrates a Tree that commemorates the departed souls. Thereby, the poetess bridges mortality and immortality, the human and vegetative world, and time and space. The Casuarina tree becomes to her an emblem of immortal bliss. Padmini Sen Gupta asserts that the poet has proved its own last line: "May love defend thee from oblivious curse." In the words of K.R.S. Iyengar "the last stanza wills as it were the immortality of the tree."

S.V. Mukherjee is of the view that the poem is one of the greatest architectural pieces in English poetry. Likewise Lotica Basu is all praise for the "riper perfection".