Before you get to look at Our Casuarina Tree MCQs, you need to know that “Our Casuarina Tree” is a poem by Toru Dutt. It was published in 1882 in her collection Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan, after her death. The poem describes a tall casuarina tree in the garden of her childhood home in Calcutta. Through this tree, the poet recalls her dead siblings and tries to preserve both the tree and the memory of them through verse.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways 📚
| Label | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Who wrote it | Toru Dutt, a pioneering Indian English poet born in 1856 |
| Published | 1882, in Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (posthumously) |
| Form | Lyric ode written in five stanzas with a rhyme scheme |
| Central theme | Nostalgia, memory, grief for dead siblings, and desire for immortality |
| Key image | A creeper climbing the tree “like a huge python” |
| Key literary device | Simile, personification, apostrophe, and imagery |
| Tree location | The garden of the poet’s childhood home in Calcutta |
| Best for | UGC NET Paper 2, RPSC First Grade, SET English exams |
| Relevance (2026) | Frequently tested for literary devices, theme, and biographical context |
Who Was Toru Dutt?
Toru Dutt (1856–1877) was one of the first Indian women to write poetry in English and French. She was born in Calcutta into a Christian Bengali family and spent part of her life in France and England. She died at just 21, before most of her work was published.
Her poem “Our Casuarina Tree” draws directly from her real life. The tree stood in the garden of her family home. Her brother Abju and sister Aru, both of whom she loved deeply, died young. The poem is her tribute to both the tree and to them.
The Poem: Structure and Form
The poem has five stanzas. It is a lyric ode, meaning it expresses personal emotions directly. The tone is nostalgic and melancholic throughout.
The opening stanza describes the tree physically. A creeper winds around its rugged, scarred trunk like a python. Crimson flowers hang from its branches. A gray baboon sits alone at its crest like a statue, watching the sunrise, while its offspring play on the lower branches.
“Like a huge Python, winding round and round / The rugged trunk, indented deep with scars.” — Toru Dutt (Our Casuarina Tree, 1882)
The later stanzas shift from description to emotion. The poet says the tree is dear to her soul, not for its beauty, but because of the memories it holds. She played under it with her siblings “many years ago.” Now they are dead, and the tree remains.
40+ Our Casuarina Tree MCQs
These first questions cover authorship, publication, form, and genre. These appear most often in the factual section of UGC NET and RPSC papers.
Q1. Who wrote “Our Casuarina Tree”?
- A) Sarojini Naidu
- B) Toru Dutt
- C) Kamala Das
- D) Rabindranath Tagore
Answer: B) Toru Dutt
Explanation: Toru Dutt wrote the poem as part of her collection Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan.
Q2. In which year was “Our Casuarina Tree” published?
- A) 1877
- B) 1880
- C) 1881
- D) 1882
Answer: D) 1882
Explanation: The poem was published posthumously in 1882 since Dutt died in 1877.
Q3. Toru Dutt wrote poetry in which languages?
- A) English and Hindi
- B) Hindi and Latin
- C) English and French
- D) English and Bengali
Answer: C) English and French
Explanation: Dutt was bilingual in both English and French literature.
Q4. What poetic form is “Our Casuarina Tree”?
- A) Epic
- B) Ballad
- C) Ode
- D) Sonnet
Answer: C) Ode
Explanation: It is classified as a lyric ode because it expresses deep personal feeling about a single subject.
Q5. Who is the speaker in the poem?
- A) A gardener tending the tree
- B) A bird singing in the branches
- C) A person reminiscing about childhood memories
- D) A traveller admiring nature
Answer: C) A person reminiscing about childhood memories
Explanation: The speaker is the poet herself, recalling her time under the tree with her siblings.
Q6. Where is the Casuarina tree located in the poem?
- A) In a forest
- B) By a river
- C) In the garden of the poet’s childhood home
- D) By the seashore
Answer: C) In the garden of the poet’s childhood home
Explanation: The tree grows in the family garden in Calcutta, which gives it personal significance for the poet.
MCQs: Imagery and Literary Devices
These questions are especially important for UGC NET Paper 2, which often tests literary devices. For more on how poets use imagery, you can read our post on romantic imagery in English poetry.
Q7. What does the creeper climbing the tree resemble, according to the poem?
- A) A squirrel
- B) A python
- C) A snake charmer
- D) A vine
Answer: B) A python
Explanation: The line reads, “Like a huge Python, winding round and round / The rugged trunk.” This is a direct simile.
Q8. What literary device is used in “Like a huge Python, winding round and round”?
- A) Metaphor
- B) Personification
- C) Simile
- D) Metonymy
Answer: C) Simile
Explanation: The word “like” marks this as a simile. The creeper is compared to a python.
Q9. What is the rhyme scheme of the opening quatrain of the poem?
- A) abcd
- B) abba
- C) aabb
- D) abab
Answer: B) abba
Explanation: The lines end in “round,” “scars,” “stars,” and “bound” following an abba pattern.
Q10. What literary device is used in “The waves gently kissed the classic shore”?
- A) Simile
- B) Metaphor
- C) Alliteration
- D) Personification
Answer: D) Personification
Explanation: Waves cannot literally kiss. The poet gives them a human action, which is personification.
Q11. What literary device is used in “Thy form, O Tree, as in my happy prime”?
- A) Simile
- B) Hyperbole
- C) Apostrophe
- D) Alliteration
Answer: C) Apostrophe
Explanation: The poet directly addresses the tree as “O Tree,” which is apostrophe, a figure of speech used to address an absent or non-human entity.
Q12. What colour are the flowers on the Casuarina tree?
- A) Yellow
- B) White
- C) Pink
- D) Crimson
Answer: D) Crimson
Explanation: The poem describes clusters of crimson flowers hanging from the boughs.
Q13. What is the trunk of the Casuarina tree described as?
- A) Smooth
- B) Rugged and scarred
- C) Thin
- D) Bright white
Answer: B) Rugged and scarred
Explanation: The poem says the trunk is “rugged” and “indented deep with scars” made by the creeper.
Q14. What does the poet see when she opens her casement in the morning?
- A) Cows grazing
- B) Birds flying
- C) The Casuarina tree
- D) Water lilies
Answer: C) The Casuarina tree
Explanation: The first sight that delights the poet at dawn is the tree.
MCQs: Animals and Natural Imagery
Q15. What animal sits alone at the crest of the tree?
- A) A crow
- B) A monkey
- C) A gray baboon
- D) An eagle
Answer: C) A gray baboon
Explanation: The poem describes “a grey baboon sits statue-like alone” at the top of the tree.
Q16. How does the baboon sit at the top of the tree?
- A) Like a hero
- B) Like a soldier
- C) Like a ghost
- D) Like a statue
Answer: D) Like a statue
Explanation: The poet uses the simile “statue-like” to describe the baboon’s still posture.
Q17. When is the baboon usually seen in the poem?
- A) Summer
- B) Autumn
- C) Winter
- D) Spring
Answer: C) Winter
Explanation: The poem sets the baboon’s appearance in winter.
Q18. What do the baboon’s young ones do on the lower branches?
- A) Sleep
- B) Sing
- C) Leap about and play
- D) Eat fruits
Answer: C) Leap about and play
Explanation: The “puny” offspring leap and play while the adult baboon sits still.
Q19. Which bird is mentioned in the poem?
- A) Bulbul
- B) Cuckoo (Kokila)
- C) Sparrow
- D) Falcon
Answer: B) Cuckoo (Kokila)
Explanation: “Kokilas” is the Sanskrit or Hindi word for cuckoos. They hail the day in the poem.
Q20. What does “darkling” refer to in the poem?
- A) A bird
- B) A bee
- C) A beetle
- D) A baboon
Answer: C) A beetle
Explanation: “Sung darkling from our tree” refers to the beetle’s sound heard at night.
Q21. When is the sweet song of the darkling heard?
- A) At dawn
- B) In the morning
- C) At night
- D) At sunset
Answer: C) At night
Explanation: The buzzing of beetles fills the night air around the garden.
Q22. What springs in the tank near the tree?
- A) Roses
- B) Lotuses
- C) Daffodils
- D) Water lilies
Answer: D) Water lilies
Explanation: The poem describes water lilies that look like “enmassed snow” in the tank.
MCQs: Theme, Memory, and Grief
For more on how grief shapes Indian English poetry, see our post on postcolonial voices in Indian English literature.
Q23. Who are the “sweet companions” the poet refers to in the poem?
- A) Friends
- B) Neighbours
- C) Siblings
- D) Cousins
Answer: C) Siblings
Explanation: The “sweet companions” are Toru Dutt’s siblings, Abju and Aru, who died young.
Q24. What is the main reason the Casuarina tree is dear to the poet?
- A) Its magnificence
- B) Its height
- C) The childhood memories linked to it
- D) Its beauty
Answer: C) The childhood memories linked to it
Explanation: The poet explicitly says the tree is dear to her soul because she played under it with her siblings.
Q25. What does “blessed sleep” mean in the poem?
- A) Nap
- B) Deep rest
- C) Death
- D) Recess
Answer: C) Death
Explanation: “Blessed sleep” is a euphemism for death. The poet’s siblings “repose” in this sleep permanently.
Q26. What does “Oblivion’s curse” mean?
- A) Feeling sleepy
- B) Gaining fame
- C) Being forgotten after death
- D) A spell cast by nature
Answer: C) Being forgotten after death
Explanation: The poet prays her verse will protect the tree from being forgotten, which is “Oblivion’s curse.”
Q27. What sound does the Casuarina tree make?
- A) A sweet song
- B) A dirge-like murmur
- C) The rustling of leaves
- D) The baboon’s cry
Answer: B) A dirge-like murmur
Explanation: The tree’s sound resembles a dirge, which is a mournful song, connecting it to grief.
Q28. To what does the poet compare the tree’s murmur?
- A) Wind on a summer day
- B) Drums
- C) Sea waves breaking on a rocky beach
- D) A whistle
Answer: C) Sea waves breaking on a rocky beach
Explanation: The poet uses this comparison to convey the deep, unending nature of the tree’s lament.
Q29. What does the poet wish to do for the Casuarina tree?
- A) Plant more of them
- B) Protect it from storms
- C) Immortalise it through her poem
- D) Cut it down
Answer: C) Immortalise it through her poem
Explanation: At the poem’s end, the poet dedicates her verse to preserving the tree’s memory.
Q30. What does the phrase “my own loved dead” refer to?
- A) Her ancestors
- B) Her siblings who died
- C) Local villagers
- D) Animals near the tree
Answer: B) Her siblings who died
Explanation: This phrase refers directly to Toru Dutt’s brother and sister who both died before her.
MCQs: Allusions and References
Q31. Which English poet’s work does Toru Dutt reference in the poem?
- A) Keats
- B) Shelley
- C) Wordsworth
- D) Tennyson
Answer: C) Wordsworth
Explanation: Dutt references Wordsworth’s poem “Yew Trees” with the line “Fear, trembling Hope, and Death, the skeleton, / And Time the shadow.”
Q32. Where are the “deathless trees” mentioned in the poem located?
- A) Paris
- B) Borrowdale
- C) Rome
- D) Calcutta
Answer: B) Borrowdale
Explanation: Borrowdale is a valley in England. Wordsworth wrote about its ancient yew trees in his poem.
Q33. What does the poet call the shore of France or Italy?
- A) Beautiful
- B) Sandy
- C) Classic
- D) Ancient
Answer: C) Classic
Explanation: The poet uses the word “classic” to describe these European shores, linking them to a grand literary and cultural heritage.
Q34. What is a “water-wraith” in the poem?
- A) A type of wave
- B) A big fish
- C) A water spirit
- D) A ship
Answer: C) A water spirit
Explanation: “Water-wraith” refers to a supernatural spirit or ghost associated with water in folklore.
Q35. What does “dreamless swoon” mean in the poem?
- A) Unconsciousness
- B) A state of sleep without dreams
- C) Loss of memory
- D) Fainting
Answer: B) A state of sleep without dreams
Explanation: The phrase describes a deep, undisturbed state of night, when the earth is still.
MCQs: Symbolism and Broader Meaning
Q36. What does the Casuarina tree symbolise in the poem?
- A) Political resistance
- B) Strength, love, and enduring memory
- C) The passage of seasons
- D) Colonial India
Answer: B) Strength, love, and enduring memory
Explanation: The tree is both physically strong and emotionally charged as a symbol of what the poet refuses to forget.
Q37. What is the overall tone of the poem?
- A) Humorous
- B) Angry
- C) Nostalgic and melancholic
- D) Romantic and passionate
Answer: C) Nostalgic and melancholic
Explanation: The poem moves from physical description to personal grief, keeping a consistently sad, reflective tone.
Q38. What does the title “Our Casuarina Tree” stress?
- A) The tree’s rare species
- B) A sense of shared ownership and collective memory
- C) The poet’s individuality
- D) Indian botany
Answer: B) A sense of shared ownership and collective memory
Explanation: The word “Our” places the tree as belonging to the poet’s family, especially her dead siblings.
Q39. What kind of immortality does the poet seek for the tree?
- A) Biological immortality
- B) Spiritual transcendence
- C) Immortality through literature and memory
- D) Scientific preservation
Answer: C) Immortality through literature and memory
Explanation: The poet’s final stanzas make clear that her poem is the means of keeping the tree alive forever.
Q40. Why is “Our Casuarina Tree” significant in Indian English literature?
- A) It is the first Indian poem in English
- B) It blends personal grief with Indian themes and Western poetic technique
- C) It attacks colonial rule
- D) It is the only poem Toru Dutt wrote
Answer: B) It blends personal grief with Indian themes and Western poetic technique
Explanation: The poem is one of the earliest examples of Indian English lyric poetry and represents the hybrid literary tradition Toru Dutt pioneered.
Three Key Questions This Poem Asks
If you face an analytical question on this poem in UGC NET or RPSC, approach it through these angles:
- How does the poet use physical description of the tree to shift gradually into emotional and elegiac territory?
- What does the poem say about memory and its relationship to place?
- How does Toru Dutt’s personal biography shape the poem’s themes of loss and immortality?
Comparison: “Our Casuarina Tree” vs. Romantic Nature Poetry
| Feature | Our Casuarina Tree | Romantic Nature Poetry (e.g. Wordsworth) |
|---|---|---|
| Central focus | A specific tree tied to personal memory | Nature as a universal spiritual force |
| Tone | Elegiac and personal | Sublime and transcendent |
| Purpose | Immortalise personal grief | Seek spiritual insight through nature |
| Setting | India (colonial Calcutta) | England (Lake District, Alps) |
| Reference to death | Direct, named siblings | Abstract, universal mortality |
Legacy and Influence
Toru Dutt died at 21, yet her poem remains central to the Indian English literary canon. It is taught in universities across India and appears in syllabi for UGC NET, RPSC First Grade, and SET exams. You can explore external resources on her life at the Poetry Foundation’s profile on Toru Dutt.
Her use of English to express a deeply Indian emotional experience set a template for later poets like Sarojini Naidu and modern postcolonial writers. The poem also connects to broader questions of exile, loss, and the act of writing as a form of mourning, themes that remain active in literary studies.
Q: What is “Our Casuarina Tree” about in simple terms?
It is a poem about a tall tree in the poet’s childhood garden. The poet describes its physical features and then explains that the tree is dear to her because she played under it with her siblings, who are now dead. She ends by wishing her poem will make the tree immortal.
Q: What students commonly confuse: Is the python real in the poem?
No. The python is a simile. The creeper that winds around the tree trunk is compared to “a huge Python.” There is no actual python in the poem.
Q: How does this poem compare to an elegy?
An elegy formally mourns a person’s death. This poem mourns the loss of siblings indirectly, through the symbol of the tree. It is an ode in form but elegiac in mood.
Q: Which Wordsworth poem does Toru Dutt reference?
She references “Yew Trees” by Wordsworth, specifically the line about “Fear, trembling Hope, and Death, the skeleton, / And Time the shadow.”
Q: Who are the “sweet companions” in the poem?
They are the poet’s siblings, specifically her brother Abju and sister Aru, both of whom died young.
Conclusion: Why This Poem Still Matters
“Our Casuarina Tree” is not just a nature poem. It is a record of grief, childhood, and the human need to hold on to what is lost. Toru Dutt wrote it when she knew her own life was ending, which gives it an urgency that students feel even today.
For exam purposes, the poem tests your knowledge of Indian English literature’s earliest period, your understanding of literary devices, and your ability to connect biography with text. It is a reliable topic in UGC NET and RPSC First Grade papers.
Here are your next steps:
- Read the full text of the poem at least twice, paying attention to each stanza’s shift in tone.
- Make a list of every literary device in the poem with the exact line. Focus on simile, apostrophe, and personification.
- Read Wordsworth’s “Yew Trees” to understand the Borrowdale reference.
- Memorise the publication year (1882), the collection (Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan), and the languages Dutt wrote in (English and French).
- Attempt 10 MCQs from this list under timed conditions to prepare for exam format.
References
- Toru Dutt, Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan, Kegan Paul, 1882.
- Eunice de Souza, Early Indian Poetry in English: An Anthology 1829–1947, Oxford University Press, 2005.
- K.R.S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English, Sterling Publishers, 1985.
- William Wordsworth, Poems, Longman, 1815 (includes “Yew Trees”).
- Meenakshi Mukherjee, The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English, Oxford University Press, 2000.