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    Suhan Roy Chowdhury
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    Ted Hughes's poem tells the story of a child who enters an oakwood and meets an old woman who claims the trees are his true family. The trees surround the child and demand he promise to plant two new oaks whenever one is cut down. They warn that if he does not, the black oak bark will take his life. The dream changes the child so that when he returns to human company, his heart remains that of a tree.

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    Ted Hughes's poem tells the story of a child who enters an oakwood and meets an old woman who claims the trees are his true family. The trees surround the child and demand he promise to plant two new oaks whenever one is cut down. They warn that if he does not, the black oak bark will take his life. The dream changes the child so that when he returns to human company, his heart remains that of a tree.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
    532 views4 pages

    Class 10 My Own True Family

    Uploaded by

    Suhan Roy Chowdhury
    Ted Hughes's poem tells the story of a child who enters an oakwood and meets an old woman who claims the trees are his true family. The trees surround the child and demand he promise to plant two new oaks whenever one is cut down. They warn that if he does not, the black oak bark will take his life. The dream changes the child so that when he returns to human company, his heart remains that of a tree.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 4

    Class-10

    Teacher: Indranil Mazumdar


    MY OWN TRUE FAMILY

    Ted Hughes

    About the poet: Edward James ‘Ted” Hughes(1930-1998) was a


    noted English poet, and had been the Poet Laureate of Great
    Britain from 1984 till his death. His famous works include
    Birthday Letters , The Hawk in the Rain and Tales from Ovid.

    Once I crept in an oakwood- I was looking for a stag.


    I met an old woman there – all knobbly stick and rag.
    She said: ‘I have your secret here inside my little bag.’

    Then she began to cackle and I began to quake.


    She opened up her little bag and I came twice awake-
    Surrounded by a string tribe and me tied to a stake.
    They said: ‘We are the oak trees and your own true family.
    We are chopped down, we are torn up, you do not blink an
    eye.
    Unless you make promise now- now you are going to die.’

    ‘Whenever you see an oak-tree felled, swear now you will


    plant two.
    Unless you swear the black oak bark will wrinkle over you
    And root you among the oaks where you were born but never
    grew.’

    This was my dream beneath the boughs, the dream that altered
    me.
    When I came out of the oakwood, back to human company,
    My walk was the walk of human child, but my heart was a tree.

    crept in: to go into a place slowly and carefully


    stag: a male deer.
    Oakwood: a forest of oak trees.
    Met: past tense of meet
    Knobbly : unsteady
    Stick : a thin piece of wood cut from a tree.
    Rag : a piece of old, torn or waste piece of cloth
    Cackle : a sound made by a hen
    Quake: Tremble from cold weakness, fear, anger.
    awake: aroused
    Surrounded: encircled,

    Staring : gazing, look fixedly at someone or something with one’s


    eye wide open.
    tribe: a large family
    tied: bound with rope, fasten with rope
    stake: a wooden post to which a person is tied
    chopped down: to cut(tree) at the bottom so that it falls to the
    ground
    torn up: to rip or pull something into pieces
    blink an eye: notice for a moment
    Unless: except if
    Whenever: at whatever time
    Felled: cut down
    Swear: pledge, promise to do something
    Plant: place a seed or a sapling in the ground so that it can grow.
    Bark: outer covering of a tree
    Wrinkle: will reduce to lines
    beneath: below, under
    boughs: branches of trees with leaves
    altered: changed
    Summary of the poem

    Ted Hughes suggests that human beings and trees should live as
    a single family. We exploit (take advantage of) Mother Nature for
    our own selfish gain (profit). We never try to repair her wounds
    (an injury). If humans do not restrain (check) their greed then
    this will lead to destruction of all the living creatures (living
    being).
    One day while looking for a stag a child enters an Oakwood.
    There he meets an old woman. She is very weak and feeble. Her
    clothes were worn out. She tells him that she has his secret in
    her little bag. The woman begins to laugh with a strange harsh
    sound. It makes the boy tremble in fear. The old woman opens
    up her little bag and puts the child under magical spell. Suddenly
    the poet finds himself surrounded by oak trees. They declare
    that they too are the members of his true family. Unfortunately
    they are chopped down. Human beings do not pay any attention.
    They told him to make a promise to plant two oak trees
    whenever he finds a tree is being cut. Otherwise the black Oak
    bark will put him into the grave of their roots.
    When the poet wakes up he realizes his mistakes. He feels sorry
    with the trees. On his way back to the human society, he was a
    human child by form but a tree at heart.

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