‘On Killing a Tree’ by Gieve Patel describes two things. First, it speaks of the meticulous task of killing a tree. Then it tells us about the perversity and tragedy of such action, about man’s systematic destruction of the environment. The poet invokes Nature’s resilience in the first two stanzas through the images of a feeding tree and a healing tree.
In the following two stanzas he creates a sense of hunting in the methodical analysis of the execution of a tree. Thus the poem, from its beginning to the end, describes in detail the process and consequences of killing a tree. Hence the title is appropriate and it drives the poet’s point home in a superb way.
