Classics Retold

A pollard is not a separate kind of tree.  It is a tree that has been pollarded. Trees that have been cut back at the top usually about 2 to 4 metres above the ground are called pollard. The new shoots of the pollarded tree grow from the cut trunk.  Pollarding was common in England because it produced a regular supply firewood and poles; kept branches above the reach of grazing animals; and prolonged the life of the tree.   Willows, alders, ashes and oaks were often managed this way.  In 19th century literature, like that of Dickens and Hardy, pollards were part of rural landscape.  Their thick turncated trunks with tufts of new branchl gave them a distinct and eerie appearance.

Alder is the common name for trees of genus Alnus, belonging to birch family.  They are medium sized deciduous trees that thrive in wet ground, especially along rivers, streams, marshes and lakes. The peculiarity of the deciduous tree is that they shed leaves in autumn to survive cold or dry season.  The following are some distinctive features of the tree: • Rounded or oval leaves with serrated (jagged saw like) edges, usually green.   • Long hanging male catkins (round cylindrical flower cluster).appear in early spring, while small female flowers develope into woody cone-like structures. • When young, smooth and gray bark getting darker and fissired with age. • Pale wood when cut and exposed to air quickly turns into orange red. Their roots contain bacteria that fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, enriching poor soils. Alder trees often evoke the atmosphere of river banks, marshes, damp country side with solitude.  Dickens and Hardy give picturesque description o...

Thorny bushes or brambles that can scratch or tear clothes or skin. Wild roses black berries or similar plants. It is often difficult to pass through these bushes. In chapter 1 of Great Expectations Pip describes the plight of a convict through the marsh among nettles and briars. The scene is fearful, but it evokes sympathy.  Nettles and briars help create an atmosphere that is wild desolate and uncomfortable, and slightly threatening.

Nettle is a wild herbaceous plant covered with tiny hollow hairs that inject irritating chemicals when touched.  Urtica dioica is its scientific name.  The word is often used in literature because it symbolises pain, difficulty or unpleasant experience.  Literal Examples: He brushed against a nettle and his hand began to sting. Figurative example: To grasp the nettle means to deal boldly with a difficult problem instead of avoiding it. Nettled means (adjective/verb)  irritated, annoyed, or provoked. She was nettled by his rude remarks. In Chapter 1 of Great Expectations, Dickens describe the escaped convict like this: ..... lamed by stones or flints and stung by nettles. Here nettles are meant by literally, not figuratively. The convict had been hiding and  running through the country side. He cut and bruised his feet on sharp flints, and he was stung by nettles growing in hedges and waste land. He is also cold, hungry, soaked and wearing broken prison clothes...

"The most private, secret and plainest wedding that's possible to have."  Those had been Bathsheba's words to Oak one evening, and he had meditated a full hour upon how to carry out her wishes to the letter and spirit.  "First a licence." Gabriel thought. On a dark night a few days later Oak came with mysterious steps from the  surrogate 's door in Casterbridge. On way back to home he met Jan Coggan.  They walked together into the village till they came to a little lane behind the church, leading down to the cottage of Laban Tall, who had lately been installed as a clerk of the parish, and was yet in mortal terror at church on Sundays when he heard his lone voice among certain hard words of the psalm, wither no man ventured to follow him.  "Well, goodnight, Coggan," said Oak, "I am going down this way."  "Oh, said Coggan, surprised.  "What is going on tonight then, make so bold, Mr Oak?" It seemed rather ungenerous not ...

This is a direct quotation from the Book of Hosea in the king James version.  Ephraim was the leading tribe of northern kingdom of Israel.  In Hosea's prophecy, Ephraim stands for the whole kingdom.  The prophet laments that the people have become so devoted to idolatry that they refuse to repent.  The phrase let him alone is a sorrowful judgement. It means leave him to the sorrowful consequences of his own choice. He has become so stubborn that further warnings are of no use.  God withdraws His attempts to correct him.  It is one of the bleakest statements in Hosea, expressing the tragedy of a heart hardened against the truth.  Joseph Poorgrass is talking in his characteristic way sprinkling biblical quotations --- often apt, sometimes amusingly misplaced --- in his conversations.  Here he uses Hosea's words figuratively, not literally.  He means "if someone has firmly made up his mind, there is no use arguing with him.  Leave him be."...