Page 7 - English Reader - 7

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Throwing a Tree
Throwing a Tree

Warm-Upm-Up
War
The poem, ‘Throwing a Tree’, by Thomas Hardy expresses the poet’s love of nature and shows
how nature becomes a victim in man’s pursuit of progress. The poem describes how two
people walk over the hill like assassins to cut down the great tree with axes. Thus, a tree that
has taken two hundred years to grow is destroyed in two hours.

The two executioners stalk along over the knolls,

Bearing two axes with heavy heads shining and
wide,

And a long limp two-handled saw toothed
for cutting great boles,

And so they approach the proud tree
that bears the death-mark on its side.

Jackets doffed they swing axes and
chop away just above ground,

And the chips fly about and lie white
on the moss and fallen leaves;

Till a broad deep gash in the bark is hewn
all the way round,

And one of them tries to hook upward a rope,
which at last he achieves.

The saw then begins, till the top of
the tall giant shivers:

The shivers are seen to grow
greater with each cut than
before:

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