How To Tell Wild Animals | Poem Explanation | Class 10th English

 

How To Tell Wild Animals | Poem Explanation | Class 10th English 

How to tell wild animals

1- Introduction 

2- Stanza Wise Explanation 

3- Word / Meaning 

4- Poetic Devices 

5- Textbook Exercises 

6- Important Extra Question/Answers 

7- Multiple Choice Question/Answers 

8- To Conclude 

1-Introduction 

The Poem named “How to tell wild Animals” is written by the poetess name Carolyn Wells. She was born in New Jersey, in the United States of America on 18th June, 1862. She was an American poet. She is remembered largely for her popular mysteries, children’s books and humorous verse.

This is a humorous poem. Poetess very beautifully explained some of the dangerous ways to identify wild animals. According to her view point, we must have general knowledge about these wild creatures. The Poem describes the unique features of the various animals. We can say that Poem is entertaining as well as informative. 

2- Stanza Wise Explanation 

Stanza 1

 If ever you should go by chance,

 To jungles in the east;

 And if there should to you advance

 A large and tawny beast,

 If he roars at you as you’re dyin’

 You’ll know it is the Asian Lion…

Explanation 

In these lines, the poetess says that if you get the chance and you go to the jungles of the east, and there you will see large Animal, whose skin is off brownish yellow colour and if he move forward towards you and roads at you so strongly that you can die out of fear, then please be sure that you have encountered an Asiatic lion.

Stanza 2

Or if sometime when roaming round,

 A noble wild beast greets you,

 With black stripes on a yellow ground,

 Just notice if he eats you.

 This simple rule may help you learn

 The Bengal tiger to discern.

Explanation 

While roaming in the forest someday, If you encounter a wild animal who meets you, with black stripes on his yellow body. If he eats you then with the help of this simple rule you can identify, that this animal is the Bengal tiger.

Stanza 3

If strolling forth, a beast You view,

 Whose hide with spots is peppered,

As soon as he has lept on you,

 You’ll know it is the Leopard.

 ‘Twill do no good to roar with pain,

 He’ll only lep and lep again.

Explanation 

The poetess says that if you are walking slowly in the forest, and you see a beast there whose skin is covered with dark spots. And as soon as he jump on you, you will Come to know that it is the Leopard. If you cry or shout in pain, is of no use because he will continue jumping on you.

Stanza 4

If when you’re walking round your yard

You meet a creature there,

Who hugs you very, very hard,

Be sure it is a Bear.

If you have any doubts, I guess

He’ll give you just one more caress.

Explanation 

While walking around in your yard, you may encounter a creature. If he hugs you very hard, be sure that it is a bear. Again if you have any doubts, then he will give you another tight hug. This second hug may be fatal but it can be fatal.

Stanza 5

Though to distinguish beasts of prey

A novice might nonplus,

The Crocodile you always may

Tell from the Hyena thus:

Hyenas come with merry smiles;

But if they weep they’re Crocodiles. 

Explanation 

It is very difficult for an inexperienced person to identify wild animals. It is difficult to distinguish between Hynea and crocodile. Hynes smiles happily while attacking its victim. A crocodile on the other hand, weeps while attacking and eating its prey. So people should keep themselves safe from these dangerous beasts.

Stanza 6

The true Chameleon is small,

A lizard sort of things;

He hasn’t any ears at all, 

And not a single wing.

If there is nothing on the tree,

This the Chameleon you see.

Explanation 

In the above lines, the poetess describes a Chameleon.  He is small  like a lizard. He doesn’t have ears and wings. But it has the quality of changing its colour according to the surroundings. If you are not able to see anything, it ears you are seeing Chameleon. 

3- Word/Meaning 

•Tawny- brownish yellow in colour

•Dyin’- dying

•Nonplus- confuse

•Forth- forward

•Leapt- to jump

•Beast- animal

•Discern- identify 

•Peppered- covered with spots

•Caress- a gentle, loving touch

•Novice- someone new to a job

•Tis- it is

4- Poetic Devices 

i-Inversion- It means to change the format of Sentences.

• If there should to you advance. (Stanza 1)

• The Bengal tiger to discern. (Stanza 2)

ii- Enjambment- If there is no punctuation mark in between two lines, then it’s an Enjambment. 

•And if there should to you advance 

A large and tawny beast (stanza 1)

• If when you are walking round your yard

You meet a creature there (stanza 4)

• Though to distinguish beast of prey

A novice might nonplus

The crocodile you always may

Tell from the Hyena thus: ( stanza 5)

iii- Alliteration- It is the occurrence of the same sound at the beginning of closely connected words. 

Roaming round

Lep and lep again 

Who hugs you very very hard

A novice might nonplus

iv- Assonance- It is the of vowel sound.

O- you should go, should to you, roars. Stanza1

O- strolling forth you, whose spot, do no good to roar.  Stanza 3

e- meet a creature there. Stanza 4

5- Textbook Exercises

1- Does ‘dyin’ really rhyme with ‘lion’?  Can you say it in such a way that it does?

 Ans- No, ‘dyin’ does not rhyme with lion. But if we change the pronunciation of lion by saying it as ‘lying’ then it may rhyme with the word ‘dyin’.

2- How does the poet suggests that you identify the lion and the tiger? When can you do so according to him?

Ans- According to the poet, one can identify the them in the following ways:

• Lion- when we see a large Animal with brownish yellow skin and if he roars at us so strongly that we can die out of fear. We can identify that he us Asiatic lion. 

• Tiger- In the forest, when we encounter a wild animal with black stripes on its yellow skin. If he attacks and eats us, we can identify this animal as Bengal tiger. 

3- Do you think the words ‘lept’ and ‘lep’ in the third stanza are spelt correctly? Why does the poet spell them like this?

Ans- The words ‘lept’ and ‘lep’ are not spelt correctly. In order to maintain the rhyme scheme of the poem she did this. The correct spelling is leapt and leap.

4- Do you Know what a ‘bear hug’ is? It is a friendly and strong hug- such as Bears are thought to give, as they attack you! Again, hyenas thought to love and crocodiles to weep ( ‘crocodile tears’ ) as they swallow their victims. Are there similar expressions and popular ideas about wild animals in your own language(s)?

Ans- Bear hug means, when The bear hugs his prey tightly until death. There are similar expressions about wild animals in every language. For example in Hindi we say magarmach ke aansu anna (crocodile tears), Girgit ke Tarah rang badalna, aastin ka saanp.

5- Look at the line “A novice might nonplus”. How would you write this ‘correctly’? Why is the poet’s ‘incorrect’ line better in the poem?

Ans- The line “ A novice might be nonplussed” is the correct line. In order to maintain the rhyme scheme the poet has written it incorrectly as ‘nonplus’ rhymes with ‘thus’.

6- Can you find other examples of poets taking liberties with language, either in English or in your own language? Can you find examples of humorous poems in your language(s)?

Ans- Plenty of examples are present in poetry where poets take liberties with language. This is called ‘poetic licence’.

The poet takes such liberties in order to maintain the rhyme scheme. 

6- Important Extra Question/Answers 

1 How can you Identify the Asian Lion and  the Bengal tiger?( C.B.S.E.2015)

Ans- the Asian lion can be identified by its brownish yellow colour and it roars loudly when it attacks it's prey. On the other hand, the Bengal tiger can be identified by black stripes on it's yellow skin. It silently attacks its prey.

2- How Can you distinguish between a tiger and a leopard? (C.B.S.E.2011)

Ans- A tiger has black stripes on it's yellow body. On the other hand a leopard has Spots peppered on its body. However, a tiger kills only when hungry, while a leopard can kill for the pleasure off jumping again an again on its prey.

3- How does a leopard behave when he sees someone? (C.B.S.E.2016)

Ans- when leopard sees someone, it jumps over him and keeps on jumping and attacking it's prey until death.

4- What is so weird about the hyena and the crocodile? (C.B.S.E.2014)

Ans- Hyena and the crocodile are famous for their weird behavior. Hyena laughs while swallowing its prey, while a crocodile weeps while killing and swallowing its prey.

5- Why does the poet use the term ‘Nobel ‘and ‘wild’ for the tiger? (C.B.S.E.2020)

Ans- The poet calls are Bengal tiger noble as well as wild because the tiger kills only when he is hungry because he don’t kill its prey for the pleasure of killing only.

7- Multiple Choice Question/Answers 

Read the Following extracts carefully and choose the correct option

 If ever you should go by chance

 To jungles in the east;

 And if there should to you advance

 A large and Tony beast,

 If he roars at you as you’re dyin’

 You’ll know it is the Asian Lion…

i-What does the poet mean by jungles in the east

• Forest in east direction

• Forests in Asian countries 

• Forests in America

Ans- Forests in Asian countries. 

ii- What are the main features of Asian Lion?

• small size

• Roars

• friendly

Ans- Roars

iii- What happens when the Lion Roars?

• It is very scary

• Animals runway 

• feels happy 

Ans- It is very scary

iv- Which word in the Stanza means animal?

• Beast

• dyin’

• tawny

Ans- Beast

8-To Conclude 

I hope the above notes would be a great help in your upcoming exams. If any doubts you can reach me through the comment section box and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Visit my page for complete notes of other chapters. Thank You…