Chapter- 13 Only God can Make a Tree
1. Question: Who wrote the poem “Only God Can Make a Tree”?
Answer: Joyce Kilmer wrote the poem.
2. Question: What does the poet say he will never see?
Answer: He will never see a poem as lovely as a tree.
3. Question: What is the tree compared to in the first stanza?
Answer: The tree is compared to a lovely poem.
4. Question: What is meant by the “hungry mouth” of the tree?
Answer: It refers to the roots of the tree.
5. Question: Against what is the tree’s hungry mouth pressed?
Answer: Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast.
6. Question: What does the earth provide to the tree?
Answer: The earth feeds and nourishes the tree.
7. Question: What does the tree look at all day?
Answer: The tree looks at God all day.
8. Question: Why does the tree lift its leafy arms?
Answer: To pray to God.
9. Question: What are the “leafy arms” of the tree?
Answer: The branches of the tree with leaves.
10. Question: What does the tree wear in summer?
Answer: A nest of robins.
11. Question: Where do robins build their nest on the tree?
Answer: In the tree’s branches, described as its hair.
12. Question: What does the word “robin” mean?
Answer: A small bird found in Europe.
13. Question: What has lain upon the bosom of the tree?
Answer: Snow has lain upon the bosom of the tree.
14. Question: What does “bosom” mean in the poem?
Answer: Chest.
15. Question: With what does the tree live intimately?
Answer: With rain.
16. Question: What does the word “intimate” mean?
Answer: Very close or dear.
17. Question: What does the poet say about poems?
Answer: Poems are made by fools like him.
18. Question: Who alone can make a tree?
Answer: Only God can make a tree.
19. Question: What season is mentioned in the poem?
Answer: Summer.
20. Question: What natural elements are closely linked with the tree?
Answer: Earth, rain, snow, and God.
21. Question: What does the word “prest” mean?
Answer: Pressed.
22. Question: What does the word “lain” mean?
Answer: Spread.
23. Question: How does the poet describe the relationship between the tree and earth?
Answer: Like that of a child and a mother.
24. Question: What feeling does the poet express towards a tree?
Answer: Love, admiration, and reverence.
25. Question: What role does God play in the poem?
Answer: God is the creator of the tree.
26. Question: What human quality is given to the tree?
Answer: The ability to pray.
27. Question: What figure of speech is used when the tree is said to pray?
Answer: Personification.
28. Question: Why does the poet call himself a fool?
Answer: Because he can only write poems, not create nature.
29. Question: What message does the poem convey?
Answer: Nature is divine and only God can create it.
30. Question: What central idea is highlighted in the poem?
Answer: The greatness of God’s creation and the beauty of nature.
Answer by Dimpee Bora
