THE POPLAR FIELD

 

8.THE POPLAR FIELD (WILLIAM COWPER)

'The Poplar Field' is an essay composed by William Cowper. In this poem the poet has presented his bygone (past) days in nostalgic tone. The poet compares the chopping down of the poplar trees to a man's life and dead. The first three verses (stanzas) in the poem describes a field near a river Ouse where poplar trees used to grow and the changes that took place because the trees are cut down. In the fourth verse the poet says that he will die soon before the new trees grow in the field. In the last verse poet says that human pleasures and enjoyments are not permanent but they die sooner than the human life itself.

Since the poplars are cut down, there is no shade, not whispering in the trees and the river Ouse doesn't get any image of those trees on its surface. The poet visited that field 12 years ago and it was full of those beautiful trees. He liked and loved those trees very much but after 12 years the trees have been cut down and they ate lying in the grass. They used to give him shelter and shadow but now they have become his seat. He used to enjoy the melodious song of black birds to sing the sweet song. They have been flown away to the hazel trees that could provide the shelter and protect them from the weather condition moreover from sun. The poet feels very sad because he cannot live any longer to see next generation of poplar trees in the same place.

In the poem the poet tries to show the close relationship between nature and human being. He links up the ideas of chopping down the poplar trees with the end of human life and pleasure. He finds a close linkage between human life and pleasure. He finds a close linkage between human life and the life of trees. For him green forest, short and sweet song of birds and natural beauty are the sources of enjoyments. According to him, if we chop down the trees, we indirectly chop down our own happiness and pleasures because they depend on natural beauty. The human life is momentary and the time of our pleasure and enjoyments are shorter than our life. Destruction of the natural beauty indicates the destruction of human life, enjoyment and human civilization. Human beings and nature are bound with each other. In absence of one, another can't be flourished. Without the existence of one, the existence of another is impossible.

In this way, the poet says that since our life is short, we must not let our pleasured be shorter by destructing the nature.