The Sugar Plum Tree

Have you ever dreamed of a place loaded with sweet candies, sugar plums, and lollies? The poet Eugene Field describes the land of ‘The Sugar Plum Tree’. This poem takes us to a place where there is a sugar plum tree, candies, and magical characters like a chocolate cat and a gingerbread dog, that tap into your blithe imaginations. Also, the poet used a special rhyming effect to make it even more fun for your reading. So let’s read the poem ‘The Sugar Plum Tree’ and take off to the land of dreams.

Child in the Land of the Sugar-Plum Tree

The Sugar Plum Tree- By Eugene Field

Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?

‘Tis a marvel of great renown!

It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop sea

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;

The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet

(As those who have tasted it say)

That good little children have only to eat

Of that fruit to be happy the next day.

When you’ve got to the tree, you would have a hard time

To capture the fruit which I sing;

The tree is so tall that no person could climb

To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!

But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,

And a gingerbread dog prowls below-

And this is the way you contrive to get at

Those sugar-plums tempting you so:

You say but the word to that gingerbread dog

And he barks with such terrible zest

That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,

As her swelling proportions attest.

And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around

From this leafy limb unto that,

And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground-

Hurrah for that chocolate cat!

There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes,

With stripings of scarlet gold,

And you carry away of the treasure that rains,

As much as your apron can hold!

So come, little child, cuddle closer to me

In your dainty white nightcap and gown,

And I’ll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.

Summary

At the beginning of the poem, the poet asks the young readers if they have ever heard of a Sugar-Plum Tree. He says this tree is quite a popular one so it is of marvelous renown. He talks about various imaginative things like the lollipop sea and the shut-eye town. He says this amazing Sugar-Plum Tree blooms by an imaginary lollypop sea in the garden of the Shut-Eye Town. This tree bears such ‘wondrously sweet’ fruits that only good children can get to eat. And those who have these sweet fruits become immensely happy the very next day. Eugene Field creates a strangely beautiful fantasy world and calls it the Shut-Eye town, that is, the land of dreams behind the eyes shut in sleep.

In the second stanza, the poet introduces even more magical characters. He says the tree is so tall, that no one could climb up to its boughs where the sweet sugar-plums swing. He speaks of a chocolate cat that sits at those high boughs of the sugar-plum tree. He says there are gingerbread dogs prowling beneath those sugar-plum boughs making it even more difficult to get the sweet fruits.

The third stanza brings a lot of alliteration and all the more rhyming words. The poet says the gingerbread dogs bark with such gusto when we say a word, that the chocolate cat becomes nervous and swells up. The chocolate cat then anxiously jumps from one leafy branch to the other, making the sugar plums tumble down to the ground. And just when the sugar plums fall to the ground, you can pick them up and taste these wondrously sweet fruits.

In the last stanza, the poet speaks of all the good things that will set a young mind to a happy rhythm. He says marshmallows, gumdrops, and red striped peppermint canes, all these treasures pour down like rain. And the child in the dreamland can collect as many of these lovely things as his little apron can hold. Having spoken of the dreamy fantasy land and the treasures it offers, the poet calls out to the little ones reading the poem, in their dainty night clothes to cuddle with him, so he can rock them away to the sugar-plum tree in the shut-eye town.

Conclusion

The poem Sugar-Plum Tree has a unique sort of rhyming that helps parents to recite or sing it to their children as a lullaby. The poet Eugene Field had written this poem to let the little children wander in the fantasy land of the lollipop sea, candies, marshmallows, and make-believe magic cats and dogs, in their dreams. This poem will encourage the little kids to imagine all that they are fond of and go to bed with a smile on their faces.