Toru Dutt's "Our Casuarina Tree": A Reading

Toru Dutt (1856-1877), who died at the age of 21 ,left behind her an imperishable legacy. She lived and wrote at a time when cultural studies were at an incipient stage of development, and the idea that mythologies hold the key to understanding a people, was not properly realized. With her amazing insight into things, Toru Dutt realized the importance of Indian myths and legends She did not need an Edmund Gosse to tell her that her poetry should be a "revelation of the heart of India", but she instinctively realized that Indian poetry, to be truly great, must be inspired by Indian myths. Her collection of poems 'Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan " reveals how even shadowy figures of legends can come alive when romantically treated. 

"Flowers look loveliest in their native soil

And their kindred branches: plucked, they fade 

And lose the colours Nature on them laid"

These lines from her poem "Ä mon Père" reveal her conviction that poetry like flowers looks loveliest in its native languages and poetry written in a foreign language cannot capture the rhythm of feelings. Her lavish use of imagery from Indian culture compensates for the lack of spontaneity due to the use of English for expressing her Indian sensibility. 

I think "Our Casuarina Tree" is her most representative poem. This poem reveals the influence of Keats on her. The first two stanzas are an imaginative and sensuous description of the Casuarina Tree, replete with imagery taken from nature . These two stanzas conform to Milton's conception of what poetry should be  "simple, sensuous and impassioned", But the tone changes to melancholic reflections in the third stanza. Toru Dutt explains why the casuarina tree is so dear to her ... "not because of its magnificence", but because she, her brother and sister (both of them are now dead) used to play together beneath the tree when they were little children. The image of the tree rises in her memory till her eyes become dim with tears.The Casuarina Tree becomes an objective correlative from fourth stanza onwards. It is the symbol of her brother and sister"s memory. She can hear the wailing of the casuarina tree wherever she goes. It follows her to distant lands She can hear its plaintive music even in the distant shores of France and Italy, when the waves gently kiss the shores beneath the moon. 

The tone of the last and fifth stanza of the poem is definitely one of triumph - triumph of immortality over death, loss and oblivion. The Casuarina Tree will remain immortal and it will keep alive the memory of her dead brother and sister, though her own poetry is too weak to confer immortality on them! Love will defend her dear ones from the curse of oblivion.