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   pmiranda2857 Teacher
   High School - 10th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   The first excerpt from "On the Killing Tree" expresses nature in a dark and menacing way.  Equating a tree's growth upon the earth with violent images and phrases such as "slowly consuming the earth." Patel speaks from a perspective of life evolving into a painful death for the tree which is difficult to kill.  In the following passage he imagines that maybe the dying tree will drop its essence to the ground and allow it to grow again.  The author draws a feeling of melancholy from the reader, he is unsure of the eternal nature of life, so he leaves his reader with doubts about the subject.  He is more sure of destruction, so there is a bit of a warning in this poem.  It is alarming to read.   

   "Not so much pain will do it.
   The bleeding bark will heal
   And from close to the ground
   Will rise curled green twigs,
   Miniature boughs
   Which if unchecked will expand again
   To former size." (Patel)

   Shelly's poem is light, full of life and whimsical in nature.  It is delightful to read and gives you a feeling of contentment about the cycle of life that is represented in the cloud's eternal journey over the earth.  It is comforting and reassuring to read this poem because the author assures the reader that the cloud will go on forever, its origins defined below.

   "I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
   And the nursling of the Sky;
   I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
   I change, but I cannot die." (Shelley)

   Sources:

   http://www.poetseers.com

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   Posted by pmiranda2857 on Friday May 30, 2008 at 8:58 PM