Hello Friends...

Sure, we all are doing well... Be careful, we must stay fit and shouldn't fall ill getting our studies affected. We shall eat and drink healthy, exercise regularly, and won't avoid our domestic and social responsibilities. And whatever time we get for ourselves at the end of the day, we must study hard for most of the time, so that we learn to think... and learn. We simply cannot afford to stop thinking, for we are learners,- we are the chosen ones who got the scope to learn...

Let's learn to think first...

Who May Participate in the Discussion

This is a discussion on the poem My Own True Family by Ted Hughes. Students of Class X, WBBSE, have to study this text for their final examination. So, it is very likely that they may find this discussion helpful for them.

However, this discussion may help any learner to develop a strategy suitable for him/herself to study a poem. Even those who prefer reading poems for leisure may find this platform suitable to share and discuss their own views of what they read with others.

Let's start reading the poem...

My Own True Family

Ted Hughes

Once I crept in an oakwood- I was looking for a stag.

I met an old woman there- all knobbly stick and rag.

She said: 'I have your secret here inside my little bag.'

Then she began to cackle and I began to quake.

She opened up her little bag and I came twice awake-

Surrounded by a staring tribe and me tied to a stake.

They said: 'We are the oak-trees and your own true family.

We are chopped down, we are torn up, you do not blink an eye.

Unless you make a promise now- now you are going to die.'

'Whenever you see an oak-tree felled, swear now you will plant two.

Unless you swear the black oak bark will wrinkle over you

And root you among the oaks where you were born but never grew.'

This was my dream beneath the boughs, the dream that altered me.

When I came out of the oakwood, back to human company,

My walk was the walk of a human child, but my heart was a tree.

The Title

Why don't we start with the title of the poem, as usual? The title of a text is generally the first clue into its meaning, isn't it?

I am hopeful that we all have studied the title minutely by this time. Structurally this is a noun phrase, right? Which one is the head noun? Yes, it's 'family'. The three preceding words describe the head noun 'family'.

We all know what is meant by the word 'family'. But the immediately preceding adjective 'true' makes the meaning of the word 'family' as used in the title of the poem quite complex. Do we have the notion of a 'false' family anyway?

I think we need to review our existing notion of a 'family' now...

What makes a family? Spouse? Parents? Children? Blood relatives?

Can't we raise families beyond our blood relatives? Won't you like to include your friends? Other near and dear ones? Your pets? Everyone living in your house?

Don't we have families beyond the boundaries of our houses? What if you stay in a hostel? Won't you call your roommates and other friends your family? But again, do you consider all of your roommates as your family?

We all know our own answers to the above questions. What do you find in common every time you feel it's a family? Some sort of strong feelings for each other, right? It may be for a blood relation, or may not be for a blood relation. But don't we agree that it is this strong emotional bond that makes our 'family' a true one? On the other hand, a typically accepted notion of family including spouses, or parents and children may very well cease to be a family if the bond between the members is lost. Let me know if you disagree.

Now I'm hopeful that we understand what is perhaps meant by the phrase 'true family' in the title of the poem. Do we have anything else to decipher from the title?

Yes, certainly, we do. We have a first person narrator in the poem. Is it not so? The narrator is referring to his or her own true family in the very title of the poem.

Don't you feel that the word 'my' and 'own' mean almost the same? Could emphasis be a possible reason behind this? We will see as we read the poem soon.

First Stanza

Once I crept in an oakwood- I was looking for a stag.

I met an old woman there- all knobbly stick and rag.

She said: 'I have your secret here inside my little bag.'

Narrative

This is a first person narrative,- we have the narrator/speaker narrating his/her own experience directly with us, right?

Time

What is the time the speaker is referring to? Yes, the speaker is referring to past, but in an indefinite way: 'once'. Don't we have the fairy-tales and the parables set mostly in this manner, in an indefinite past? Do you feel any semblance?

Action

The Speaker

What was the speaker busy with then? S/he had slowly (and/or being unnoticed) entered [crept in] a forest of oak-trees [oakwood]. S/he was searching for [looking for] a male deer [stag].

Why? Do you have any idea why the speaker was looking for a stag in the oakwood? Was s/he out there for hunting? Or, was s/he looking forward to have an adorable pet? Well, it seems we don't have any clue yet to conclude, isn't it? However, by now, at the end of the first line, we know it for sure that the speaker crept in the oakwood to look for a stag, right?

Did the speaker find the stag s/he was looking for? Not in the first stanza, at the least. Rather, s/he met an old woman there.

The Old Woman

Is it quite likely to meet an old woman in a forest? Not much, right? Except the fact that she was a very poor lady who could not afford to live in the locality?

However, could it be so, that the lady herself chose to stay away from the crowd of a locality? Would you like to think of some plausible reasons behind?

How did the lady look? She was an old woman, and she was so old, or weak, that she required a stick to support herself.

And it was not a fancy walking stick that you get to buy from a store. It was all knobbly [with lumps and irregularities] a stick. Wherefrom do you think the lady picked up the stick? Any idea?

Moreover, she wrapped herself in rag [torn clothes]. She seemed to be a very poor woman, right?

Don't you feel that there is something unusual about her claim that she had the speaker's secret inside her little bag? What could possibly be the speaker's secret? Was s/he trespassing the forest? But, how could the lady have the secret inside her little bag?

Are you now reminded of those fearsome childhood-stories about witches who used to charm little children away with tricks hidden inside their bags? But, now we all know for sure that those were all fancy stories, and witches or magicians are never fearful, right?

Characters

So how many characters we got introduced to in the first stanza? Two: the speaker in the poem and the old woman s/he met in the forest. Don't you feel the setting turning quite dramatic by now, with characters engaged in action in the middle of a forest sometime long back in the past?

Phrasal-verbs

Have you noted the two phrasal verbs that we have got in the first line of the poem? Yes, 'creep in' and 'look for' are the two phrasal verbs that you may note down to strengthen your active vocabulary. Though you have already got their contextual meanings, you are always welcome to consult a dictionary to learn more about the usages of these phrasal verbs.

Reporting a Speech

Why don't you try to report the speech of the old woman as you find it in the third line of the stanza? If you face some difficulty, or have any doubt, you may check the link down below where you get to revise your skills in reporting direct speeches:

https://anirbaneng.blogspot.com/2020/05/change-in-mode-of-narration-or.html

Punctuation

We have three explanatory/elaborative punctuation marks used in this stanza. Would you like to locate them?

Yes, you're absolutely correct: We have two dashes, one in each of the first two lines; and a colon in the third line, dividing the lines into two parts. The last part of the first line following the dash [I was looking for a stag] explains the reason of the activity referred to in the first part of the line [I crept in an oakwood]. The second part of the second line following the dash [ all knobbly stick and rag] elaborates the identity of the old lady referred to in the first part of the line. And the colon in the last line refers to the actual speech of the lady in the second part ['I have your secret here inside my little bag.'] as referred to in the first part earlier [She said].

Second Stanza

Then she began to cackle and I began to quake.

She opened up her little bag and I came twice awake-

Surrounded by a staring tribe and me to a stake.

Action

Do you feel the action getting heated up slowly? Yes, and I think it has started to get complicated in our minds as well. Have we started to recall those childhood eerie wizardry stories again?

Let's read once again from the first line of the stanza:

Then she began to cackle and I began to quake.

The old woman started to laugh in a shrill voice [cackle], and the speaker started to tremble/shake [quake].

Why was s/he trembling?

Was s/he afraid?

What made him/her afraid?

Was s/he afraid of the old lady?

What was there to be afraid of an old lady?

Was s/he too scared as the old woman reminded him/her of the powerful witches from our childhood fantasy-stories?

Do you feel that it was too childish for the speaker to get afraid? Could the speaker actually be a child by any chance?

Let's move on further keeping all these questions and the probable answers in our mind for it's too early to conclude...

She opened up her little bag and I came twice awake-

The old woman opened her little bag, the bag where she had the secret of the speaker in hold. [Was she building up her charm? Like the witches about whom we were told?] And...

And the speaker came twice awake- Was s/he sleeping? What do you think of the phrase 'came twice awake'? How can one wake up twice?

Well, if you ask me for my own reading, I would like to say that to be awake also means to be aware, to be aware of the surroundings. Perhaps the speaker was too afraid to react at first. Then as the woman opened her bag, s/he woke up for the first time from that freezing fearful state of being. Soon, s/he became aware of his/her state and surroundings as well. Thus the speaker became doubly awake.

How did the speaker find him/herself as s/he became awake?- Surrounded by a group looking at him/her [staring tribe], tied to a pole [stake].

Do you feel that the old woman was a real witch who had cast her spell of magical charm?

Have you noted that we have newer characters being introduced on the stage again?

Parallelism

It is noteworthy how structurally similar [parallel] phrases can be used to bring up/heighten/foreground the difference between the states of different characters:

That the lady began to cackle, and the speaker began to quake simultaneously clearly points out who was in charge of the situation. Here it is to be noted that the structures of both the highlighted phrases are the same,- we have the verb began followed by an infinitive. It is just the difference in the verbs used in the infinitives [cackle to refer to the action of the lady, and quake to refer to the action of the speaker him/herself] that heightens the difference dramatically.

Likewise, we may study the difference that is marked by the phrases a staring tribe and me tied to a stake. The difference in the status of the tribe and the speaker comes out clear from the usage of the participle adjectives in the phrases. The tribe is referred to as staring, or watching closely; whereas the speaker is tied to a stake and is being watched; and we the readers get it very clear who holds the power.

Third And Fourth Stanza

They said: 'We are the oak-trees and your own true family.

We are chopped down, we are torn up, you do not blink an eye.

Unless you make a promise now- now you are going to die.'

'Whenever you see an oak-tree felled, swear now you will plant two.

Unless you swear the black oak bark will wrinkle over you

And root you among the oaks where you were born but never grew.'

Would you like to guess why I am proposing to study the third and the fourth stanza at a single go? What makes theses two stanzas a single unit?

Yes, you've guessed it right once again. These stanzas together contain the speech of the staring tribe. You may follow the quotation marks if you fail to get it.

I guess you have the obvious question storming your minds now: Why then we have the speech distributed into two stanzas at all? A single stanza could have expressed it perfectly, isn't it? Well, why don't you think it out yourself?

The Staring Tribe

The Introduction

Who did surround the speaker, tied to a stake? Now you have the answer clearly stated as they introduce themselves:

We are the oak-trees and your own true family.

The Tone

What is your say about the way they introduce themselves? Do you sense a bit of irritation in the way they say your own true family? Do you feel that they stress the word true a bit more than that is normal?

Think of a situation where you need to make the claim that you are a 'true' friend of the person you are speaking to. How do you find yourself in the situation?- Calm? Or, a bit agitated?

How's the tone of the oak-trees in the next line?-

We are chopped down, we are torn up, you do not blink an eye.

Agitated, to be sure. Note how they complain: you do not blink an eye

Here, the meaning is to be understood pragmatically. The oak-trees didn't want the speaker in the poem to blink his/her eyes as people cut them down, but to feel sympathetic for them. We close our eyes instinctively at horrible sights. If we don't even blink, it may indicate that we aren't bothered at all.

Do you hear a threat in the third line of the third stanza? Yes, of course it is a threat:

Unless you make a promise now- now you are going to die.

Have you noted how the initial tone of irritation gradually turned to a threatening tone? Don't you feel the shift to be justified? Or do you feel them sounding very much like the ruthless humans?

Shall we move on to the next stanza before we discuss the issues further? Let's first check out what promise they want the speaker to swear:

Whenever you see an oak-tree felled [cut down], swear [promise] now you will plant two [oak-trees].

Do you still feel that the oak-trees are being unnecessarily ruthless?

But yes, they seemed to be less forgiving in case the speaker in the poem refused to comply. If s/he would not promise, the black oak bark would devour the speaker up, and send him/her to hell:

Unless you swear the black oak bark will wrinkle over you

And root you among the oaks where you were born but never grew.

The visual perception of the black oak bark [outer covering/skin of a tree] wrinkling over the speaker [engulfing the speaker] is quite eerie, isn't it? Doesn't it evoke the image of death creeping in? It was also believed by the ancient people that the roots of oak-trees went deep down to the underworld, or hell. If the speaker would not swear to plant two oak-trees whenever s/he found one to be chopped down by humans, the black oak bark would root [fix; please don't miss that the word is being used as a verb here, and not as a noun which is more common] him/her among the oaks, leaving him/her to be chopped down along with the other oak-trees, and thus sending him/her to hell.

It's not over yet. The last accusation is more inclusive than the previous one: The speaker was born among the oaks, but never grew to be one of them. Homo sapiens are truly an utter failure when it comes to co-existing [growing] with other forms of lives.

Did the oak-trees sounded more like the almighty magicians from the fantasy stories, or the old woman?

Prepositional Verbs

How do you know that 'chop down' or 'tear up' [tear-torn-torn] are not phrasal verbs, but verbs followed by prepositions? Simple, you may put the object, if it is noun, in between the verb and the following preposition. If the object is a pronoun, we always put it between the verb and the following preposition.-

The men chopped down the tree. [Object (noun) after the verb phrase (verb + following preposition)]

The men chopped the tree down. [Object (noun) after the verb followed by the preposition]

The men chopped it down. [Object (pronoun) after the verb followed by the preposition]

You have already come across a few phrasal verbs while reading this poem earlier. See, if you can change the position of the object like we did in case of prepositional verbs.

A Word of Caution

I always grew up listening to the same old warning from my parents and teachers: 'You are going to fail miserably unless you study hard.'

You have come across the word 'unless' twice in the poem till so far. Study how the word is used to warn, as a mark of caution, or condition. If you want to incorporate the word into your active vocabulary, make sure you make a few sentences including the word as suitable to your real life.

The Reason Why We have the Speech of the Oak-trees in Two Stanzas

Did you get any answer to the question?

Well, I'm sure that you have noted the structure of the whole poem in the mean time. The whole poem is divided into five stanzas each containing three rhyming lines. Expressing the whole speech of the oak-trees would have destroyed the regular structure of the poem.

Apart from the structural reason, we do have a semantic [associated with meaning] reason as well. The third stanza contains the accusations made by the oak trees, and the fourth stanza contains the price they demand from the speaker. Thus, though both the stanzas reflect the voice of the oak-trees, the two stanzas come meaningful in organising their argument.

Let me know if you have anything else to say...

The Final Stanza

The Dream

Here again, we get our speaker narrating his/her story back again in his/her own voice. And we come to know that whatever s/he had narrated earlier as his/her experience was actually experienced in his/her dream in the forest:

This was my dream beneath [under] the boughs [the branches of trees]

Reconstructing the Story

Then, shall we reconstruct the story, now, once again? The speaker once had entered an oak-forest to look for a stag. Possibly, s/he fell asleep under some tree being tired and exhausted. And the, s/he had a dream where s/he met the old woman and the tribe of the oak trees. [Would you also like to reconsider the meaning of the speaker coming 'twice awake' now as well?]

The Reason

But why did s/he dream such a dream? Maybe, she couldn't spot the stag s/he was looking for in spite of his/her best effort. [By the way, why do you think the speaker was looking for a stag, now?] And s/he also had noticed that many of the trees in the forest had been felled since his/her last visit to the jungle. S/he had therefore realised, being almost as smart as you, that ruthless deforestation had driven the wildlife away from human habitat. S/he must had been thinking of the possible remedies while s/he dozed off. Hence, in his/her dream, s/he just got a reflection of his/her own mind.

Metaphors

But, I am hopeful that you would like to appreciate the old woman and the talking oak-trees as meaningful metaphors as well if you are interested in reading the text intensively, and not as just the imaginary fragments of a dream. Won't you get another dimension of meaning if you consider the old woman as a poor, marginalised person who strives her best to keep her family afloat all by herself, and the oak-trees her children who are mostly bullied and heckled in their schools for being poor, and not so well-off as you?

You know, you are free to interpret the text in your own light...

The Change

The dream of the speaker changed [altered] him/her. How? S/he turned sympathetic towards the trees [my heart was a tree], though s/he still belonged to the [ruthless] human tribe [My walk was the walk of a human child] as s/he left the forest to return to his/her home [When I came out of the oakwood, back to human company].

Have the speaker's dream changed you?

The End?

Do you feel that the text ends here? Or, is this just the beginning of a new text, recording the course of a new history where changed humans would prove themselves worthy of co-existence with other life-forms? Are you ready to take a part in this newer course of history, making yourself the 'true' family of 'others'? Or, would you prefer to continue along the way we have traversed [walked] so far?

It's your choice, and I do hope that you would choose wisely...

Punctuation

Punctuation plays a very important role in the process of negotiation of meaning. Have you noted that each line in the final stanza is divided into two sense groups [meaningful chunks] by a comma? Though all the three commas used in the middle of the lines in the stanza divide the lines into meaningful units, they link those units in different ways.

Let's consider the first line of the stanza:

This was my dream beneath the boughs, the dream that altered me.

My walk was the walk of a human child, but my heart was a tree.

The second part of the line here elaborates the 'dream' referred to in the first part, right? Could you replace this comma with some other punctuation mark? Remember, we have already discussed a bit about elaborative/explanatory punctuation marks earlier in this very discussion.

However, the two parts of the second line separated by the comma are not linked the same way, are they?-

When I came out of the oakwood, back to human company,

No, they aren't, right? Here, the second part just provides some newer information in addition to the one provided in the first part. Do you think that we have other options to use other than a comma [indicating addition] here?

Would you like to find out how the comma links the two parts of the third line of the stanza, and if we can replace the comma with some other punctuation marks without altering the intention of the poet? I would love to her from you down there in the comment box section...

The Speaker

Now, as we have completed reading the whole of the poem, we may now finalise the list of the characters in the poem. It seems we have only one real character, the speaker; and the other characters, the old woman and the oak trees, were conceived by the speaker in his/her dream, right?

At this point, if we desire, we may attempt to unravel the character of the speaker further from the clues given in the poem:

Is it possible for us to determine the gender of the speaker? Do you have any clue in the poem? Do you feel that it's necessary for us to determine the gender of the speaker to understand the meaning of the poem? If yes, why?

Is our speaker a child? Would you like to refer to the last line of the poem in this regard? I do agree that the speaker entered the forest as a child, immature and less aware of his/her social responsibilities. But was s/he the same as s/he returned back from the forest to human company? Didn't s/he gain some awareness and maturity back there in the forest? What makes a person adult? Age, or maturity?

Even if you feel that age is important to count a person as a child, or as an adult, I agree with you. But, do you really feel that the speaker narrated us his/her experience as soon as s/he came out of the forest? Or, is it more likely that s/he narrated his/her story with us sometime later? Would you mind referring to the very last line of the poem once again to look for a certain answer?

The Enactment

How about watching an enactment of the dramatic poem you've just read? If you're interested, hit the link below to watch a version made by me for fun. I would also like to let you know that programming like that is damn easy and fun on Scratch, and it took me just two days to learn the basics and come out with that animation. If you're interested, you may try programming, and I'm sure you would enjoy it.

And you're welcome to be critical about my version. Just voice out your opinions there in the comment box, and I will be more than happy to respond back:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/423094805/